BOOKSELLE_RS.,^STATlONERS' 
; 26 & 28 TREMONT ST & 
II 30 COURT SQ..B0STON. 




MAJOR JOHN PITCAIRN. 



BY WHOSE ORDER THE OPENING VOLLEY OF THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTION WAS FIRED. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775, 



LEXINGTON, CONCORD, 

LINCOLN, 

ARLINGTON, CAMBRIDGE, 

SOMERVILLE and CHARLESTOWN, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 



FRANK WARRfiN (JOBURN 




LEXINGTO:jfT)M.MS., U. S. A.. 
PUBLISHED 5V fftlE AUTHOR, 



5"S 




COPYRIGHT, 

1912. 

FRANK WARREN COBURN. 



P. L. COBURK '& CO., PRINTERS, BOSTON, MASS., 0. 3. A. 



DEDICATION. 

TO MY SON : 

CHARLES LYMAN -COBURN, 

A NATIVE OF LEXINGTON. 



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VI PREFACE 

offered, and one that aims to be a history of the 
entire day. I have endeavored to make it not 
only complete and interesting, but just and 
reUable, recognizing fully the rights of my own 
ancestors to rebel, and also recognizing the 
rights of the mother country to prevent such 
rebellion — even by an appeal to arms. Since 
those days we have grown to be a mother 
country ourselves, and have had reason, on more 
than one occasion, to exercise that accepted 
right of parental control. 

This narrative is based upon official reports, 
sworn statements, diaries, letters, and narratives 
of participants and witnesses; upon accounts of 
local historians and national orators; and, in a 
few cases, upon tradition, if such seemed 
authentic and trustworthy. 

But I am sorry to say, that in more than one 
instance, I have found even the sworn state- 
ments at variance with each other. I am satis- 
fied that the authors did not intend to mislead 
in any way, but simply tried to tell to others 
what appeared to them. Their mental excite- 
ment naturally added a little of that vivid 
coloring noticeable in most war narratives of a 
personal nature. My work has been to har- 
monize and simplify these, and to extract simply 
the truth. 

In 1775 the greater part of the present town of 
Arlington was a part of Cambridge, and known 



PREFACE. VII 

as the Menotomy Precinct. Later it was incor- 
porated as a separate town and called West Cam- 
bridge. Later still its name was changed to 
Arlington. Somerville, in that year, was a part of 
Charlestown. What remained of Charlestown 
eventually became a part of Boston, though 
still retaining its ancient name. In writing of the 
events that happened within the boundaries of 
each, I shall speak of them as of Arlington, of 
Somerville, and of Charlestown. 

I am glad to add that the bitterness and 
hatred, so much in evidence on that long-ago 
battle day, no longer exist between the children 
of the great British Nation. 

Frank Warren Coburn. 

Lexington Mass., April 19, 1912. 



CONTENTS. 

Authorities xii 

In Parliament 1 

The Provincial Congress ... 5 

British Forces in Boston ... 13 

The British Start for Lexington and 

Concord 19 

The Messengers of Alarm . . 20 

Flight of Hancock and Adams . 30 

Alarms in Other Places ... 32 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Advance Through 

Cambridge 47 

Lieut. -Col, Smith's Advance Through 

Somerville . . • . . 48 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Advance Through 

Cambridge 50 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Advance Through 

Arlington ..... 51 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Advance Through 

Lexington 57 

The Opening Battle on Lexington 

Common 58 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Advance Through 

Lincoln 72 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Advance Into Con- 
cord 73 

Battle at North Bridge in Concord 78 
Lieut. -Col. Smith's Retreat Through 

Concord 95 



X CONTENTS. 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Retreat Through 

Lincoln 99- 

Lieut. -Col. Smith's Retreat to Lexing- 
ton Village .... 105 

Earl Percy Marches to Reinforce 

Lieut. -Col. Smith . . . 114 

Percy's Retreat Through Arlington 130 

Percy's Retreat Through Cambridge 145 

Percy's Retreat Through Somerville 150 

Percy's Arrival in Charlestown , 154 

Americans Killed, Wounded and 

Missing 157 

British Killed, Wounded, Prisoners 

AND Missing 159 

Distances Marched by the British 

Soldiers 161 

English Friends After the Battle 162 

Index • • 165 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 
Major John Pitcairn . . facing title 

Copied from a rare miniature in the possession of the Lexington 
Historical Society, and published in this work by their permission. 

The Doolittle Pictures. 

Plate I. The Battle of Lexington, April 
19th, 1775 . . . facing page 58 

Plate II. A View of the Town of Concord, 

facing page 73 

Plate III. The Engagement at the North 
Bridge in Concord . facing pace 78 



ILLUSTRATIONS. XI 

Plate IV. A View of the South Part of 
Lexington . . . facing page 122 

The Amos Doolittle Pictures of Lexington and Concord, copper- 
plate engrravings, size about 12x18 inches, and hand-colored, were 
originally published by James I,ockwood in New Haven, December 
13, 1775. The drawings were made by Mr. Earl, a portrait painter, 
and the engravings therefrom were by Amos Doolittle. Both were 
members of the Governor's Guard, and came on to Cambridge as 
volunteers under Benedict Arnold immediately after the battle of 
April 19th, and soon after commenced these early specimens of 
American art. The student of today prizes them, not for their 
artistic excellence, but for their faithfulness in depicting the scenery, 
buildings, and troops engaged. 

In the Book Buyer for January, 1898, is an illustrated article 
on Early American Copperplate Engraving, by William Loring 
Andrews. I am indebted to him, and to the publishers, Charles 
Scribners'Sons, for permission to copy the Doolittle set for this work. 

Hugh Earl Percy . . facing page 114 

From a contemporary copperplate engraving published by John 
Fielding. London, 1785. 

General William Heath, facing page 154 

From a portrait in Harper's Magazine, October, 1883, and copied 
for publication in this work by permission of Harper & Brothers. 



MAPS. 



Boston and Vicinity in 1775-6, facing page 19 

Copied from part of the map to illustrate the Siege of Boston in 
Marshall's Life of Washington, and dated 1806. I have made slight 
additions to indicate Smith's and Percy's movements. 

Lexington Common and Vicinity, page 59 

Concord Village and Vicinity, page 79 

Battle Road Through Concord and Lin- 
coln page 100 

Battle Road Through Arlington and Cam- 
bridge page 131 

Battle Road Through Somerville and 

Charlestown . . . page 151 



AUTHORITIES. 

Individuals, Societies, and Historical Works of Value to Me 
in the Preparation of this Work. 

Adams, Josiah. Address at Acton, July 21, 1835. 

Adams, Josiah. Letter to Lemuel Shattuck, in Vindica- 
tion of the Claims of Capt. Isaac Davis. 

Allen. Joseph and Lucy Clark Allen, Memorial of, by 
their Children. 

Almanack. George's Cambridaje, or the Essex Calendar 
for 1776. 

Almanack. Nathaniel Low, 1775. 

Almanack. North American, 1775. By Samuel Stearns. 

Almanack. North American, 1776. By Samuel Stearns. 
Containing Rev. Wm. Gordon's Account of the Battle. 

Austin, James T. Life of Elbridge Gerry. 

Bacon, Edwin M. Historical Pilgrimages in New England. 

Bancroft, George. History of the United States. 

Barber, John Warner. Historical Collections of Massa- 
chusetts. 

Barber, John W. History and Antiquities of New Haven. 

Barrett, Capt. Amos. Concord and Lexington Battle, in 
Journal and Letters of Rev. Henry True. 

Barry, William. History of Framingham. 

Bartlett, George B. Concord Guide Book. 

Bartlett, S. R. Concord Fight. 

Bolton, Charles Knowles. Brookline, the History of a 
Favored Town. 

Bolton, Charles Knowles. Letters of Hugh Earl Percy. 

Bond, Henry, M.D. Genealogies of the Families of 
Watertown. 

Boston. Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of 
the Evacuation of, by the British Army. 

Booth, E. C. Article in Somerville Journal, April, 1875. 

Boutwell, George S. Oration at Acton, Oct. 29, 1851. 

British Officer in Boston in 1775, in Atlantic Monthly, 
April, 1877. 

Brooks, Charles, and James M. Usher. History of 
Medford. 

Brown, Abram English. Beneath Old Roof Trees. 

Brown, Abram English. History of Bedford. 

Brown, Charles, of East Lexington. 



AUTHORITIES. XIII 

Cambridge of 1776. Edited for the Ladies' Centennial 

Committee, by A. G. 
Clarke, Jonas. Pastor of the Church in Lexington. 

Opening of the War of the Revolution. Appended 

to a Sermon Preached by Him, April 19, 1776. 
Cleaveland, Colonel, of the Artillery. Historical Record 

of the 52nd Regiment. 
Concord Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth 

Anniversary of the Incorporation, Sept. 12, 1885. 
Concord Fight, Souvenir of the 120th Anniversary of. 
Converse, Parker Lindall. Legends of Woburn. 
Curtis, George William. Oration on the One Hundredth 

Anniversary of the Fight at Concord. 
Cutter, Ben. and William R. History of Arlington. 
Dana, Richard H. Oration on the One Hundredth 

Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. 
Dawson, Henry B. Battles of the United States. 
De Bernicre's Report of the Battle. 
Depositions of Eye-witnesses and Participants. 
Drake, Francis S. The Town of Roxbury. 
Drake, Samuel Adams. Historic Fields and Mansions of 

Middlesex. 
Drake, Samuel Adams. History of Middlesex County. 
Drake, Samuel Adams. Old Landmarks and Historical 

Personages of Boston. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Historical Discourse, Concord, 

Sept. 12, 1835. Containing Diary of Rev. William 

Emerson (eye-witness), April 19, 1775. 
Everett, Edward. Oration at Concord, April 19, 1825. 
Everett, Edward. Address at Lexington, April 19 (20), 

1835. 
Everett, Edward. Mount Vernon Papers. 
Farmer, John. Historical Memoir of Billerica. 
Frothingham, Richard. History of the Siege of Boston. 
Frothingham, Richard. Rise of the Republic of the 

United States. 
Gage. Gen. Thomas. Report of the Battle. 
Gettemy, Charles Ferris. True Story of Paul Revere's 

Ride, in the New England Magazine, April, 1902. 
Gordon, William, D.D. History of the United States. 
Goss, Elbridge Henry. Life of Col. Paul Revere. 
Graham, James. History of the United States. 
Great Britain, War Office of, for Gen. Gage's Report. 
Green, Samuel Abbott. Groton During the Revolution. 
Hale, Edward E., in Winsor's Memorial History of 

Boston, 



XIV AUTHORITIES. 

Hamlin, Rev. Cyrus. My Grandfather, Col. Francis 

Faulkner. 
Hanson, J. W. History of Danvers. 
Harper's Popular Cyclopaedia of U. S. History. 
Haven, Samuel F. Historical Address, Dedham, Sept. 21, 

1836. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Mosses From an Old Manse. 
Hazen, Rev. Henry A. History of Billerica. 
Heath, Major-General. Memoirs of. Written by Him- 
self. 
Historical Records of the British Army. The Fourth or 

King's Own Regiment of Foot. 
Holland, Henry W. William Dawes and His Ride with 

Paul Revere. 
Houghton, H. M. Plans Locating Graves of British 

Soldiers. 
Hudson, Alfred Sereno. History of Sudbury. 
Hudson, Charles. History of Lexington. 
Hudson, Charles. History of Marlborough. 
Hudson, Frederic. Concord Fight in Harper's New 

Monthly Magazine, May, 1875. 
Hunnewell, James F. A Century of Town Life. A 

History of Charlestown. 
Hurd, D. Hamilton. History of Essex County. 
Hurd, D. Hamilton. History of Middlesex County. 
Jewett, C. F. & Co. History of Worcester County. 
King, Daniel P. Eulogy at the Funeral of Gen. Gideon 

Foster. 
Lannon, John. Lexington. 

Lexington, Handbook of its Points of Interest, 189L 
Lexington, Historical Monuments and Tablets. 
Lexington Historical Society, Alonzo E. Locke, President, 

and various officers and attendants. 
Lexington Historical Society, Proceedings of. Vol. I., 

II., III., IV. Contributions by Edward P. Bliss; 

Francis H. Brown, M.D.; G. W. Brown; Albert W. 

Bryant; Elizabeth Clarke; Elizabeth W. Harrington; 

Herbert G. Locke; James P. Munroe; Elizabeth W. 

Parker; G. W. Sampson; A. Bradford Smith; Geo. O. 

Smith; and Rev. Carlton A. Staples. 
Lexington, History of the Fight at. From the Best 

Authorities. 
Lexington, Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of 

the Battle of. 
Lewis, Alonzo. History of Lynn. 
Lincoln, William. History of Worcester. 



AUTHORITIES. XV 

Lincoln, Mass. Celebration of the iSOth Anniversary of 

Its Incorporation, April 23, 1904. 
Local Loiterings and Visits in the Vicinity of Boston. By 

a Looker-on. 
Lossing, Benson J. History of the United States. 
McGlenen, Edward W., Boston. 
McKenzie, Rev. Alexander. Address at Dedication of 

Monument Over Cambridge Killed. 
Mansfield, Rev. Isaac, Chaplain of Gen. Thomas's Regi- 
ment. Thanksgiving Sermon in Camp at Roxbury, 

Nov. 23, 1775. 
Marshall, John. Life of George Washington. 
Massachusetts Archives, at State House, Boston. 
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Vols. II., 

IV., v., XVIII., and Vol. IV., Second Series. 
Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, May, 1876. 
Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758, 1775. 

Lemuel Lyons, Samuel Haws. 
Muzzey, A. B. History of the Battle of Lexington. 
Muzzey, A. B. Reminiscences and Memorials of the Men 

of the Revolution. 
Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King's 

Troops. Worcester, Printed by Isaiah Thomas, by 

Order of the Provincial Congress. 
New England Historic Genealogicol Society. 
Osgood, Charles S. and H. M. Batchelder. Historical 

Sketch of Salem. 
Paige, Lucius R. History of Cambridge. 
Parker, Charles S. Town of Arlington, Past and Present. 
Parliamentary History of England. Published Under 

the Superintendence of T. C. Hansard, Vol. XVIII. 
Percy, Acting Brigadier-General, His Report of the 

Battle. 
Phinney, Elias. History of the Battle of Lexington. 
Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Journals of Each. 
Rantoul, Robert, Jr. Oration at Concord, on the Seventy- 
fifth Anniversary of the Events of April 19, 1775. 
Revere, Paul. His Account of the Ride to Lexington. 

Reprinted in the Life of Revere by Goss. 
Reynolds, Rev. Grindall. Concord Fight. 
Riply, Rev. Ezra. History of the Fight at Concord. 
Russell, Edward J., Dorchester. 
Samuels, E. A., and H. H. Kimball. Somerville, Past and 

Present. 
Sawtelle, Ithamar B. History of Townsend. 



XVI AUTHORITIES. 

Scull, G. D. Memoir and Letters of Capt. W. Glanville 
Evelyn, of the 4th Regiment (King's Own). 

Sewall, Samuel. History of Woburn. 

Shattuck, Lemuel. History of Concord, Bedford, Acton^ 
Lincoln and Carlisle. 

Sidney, Margaret. Old Concord, Her Highways and 
Byways. 

Simonds, Eli. Article Containing his Statement about 
the Battle of Lexington, Boston Globe, July 17, 1895. 

Smith, Samuel A. West Cambridge on the Nineteenth of 
April, 1775. An Address. 

Smith, S. P., D.D. History of Newton. 

Somerville, Handbook of the Historic Festival, 1898. 

Staples, Rev. Carlton A. 

Stearns, Jonathan P., D.D. Historical Discourse, Bed- 
ford Sesqui-Centennial, Aug. 27, 1879. 

Stedman, C. History of the Origin, Progress and Termi- 
nation of the American War. 

Stephens, Alexander. Memoirs of John Home Tooke. 

Stone, Edwin M. History of Beverly. 

Sumner, William H. History of East Boston. 

Swan, Charles W. MSS. of Levi Harrington. Account 
of the Battle, given by him to his son, Bowen» 
March, 1846. (Eye-witness on Lexington Common^ 
and then about fifteen years of age. ) 

Tenney, Wallace Pay. 

Tolman, George. Concord Minute Man. 

Thornton, John Wingate. Pulpit of the American 
Revolution. 

United States Geological Survey, Maps of. 

Watson, John Lee. Paul Revere's Signal. The True 
Story of the Signal Lanterns. 

Webber, C. H. and W. S. Nevins. Old Naumkeag. 
Historical Sketch of Salem. 

Wellington, Caroline, Charles A., Cornelius, and Eliza. 

Wheildon, W. W. Chapter in the History of the Concord 
Fight. Boston Sunday Herald, April 19, 1885. 

Winsor, Justin. Memorial History of Boston. 

Worthington, Erastus. History of Dedham. 

Wyman, Thomas B. Genealogies and Estates of Charles- 
town. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 
IN PARLIAMENT. 

The Treaty of Peace signed at Paris, Feb. 10, 
1763, terminated the prolonged struggle between 
England and France, for supremacy in the New 
World. For seven long years it had lasted, and 
its cost had been treasure and bood. Justly 
proud were the British Colonies of the martial 
success of their mother country, a goodly 
part of which they had valorously won them- 
selves. 

During the war, and at its close, England had 
been generous in remitting to the Colonial Treas- 
uries large sums in partial liquidation of the war 
expenses advanced by them; but subsequently 
it was esteemed wise, by a majority of her states- 
men, to gradually replace such sums in the 
royal coffers, by a system of colonial taxation 
very similar to modern methods of raising war 
revenues. In the abstract this fact was not 
particularly disagreeable to the colonists, for 
the necessity Avas admitted, but the arbitrary 
method of levying those taxes was bitterly con- 
tested. 

England's Parliament claimed the right to tax 
the distant Colonies even as it taxed the neigh- 
boring Boroughs, and as a commencement of its 
financial plan enacted a Stamp Act, so called, 
to take effect Nov. 1, 1765, similar in intent and 
working, to the modern revenue stamp of our 
Government. These stamps were to be pur- 
chased of the Crown's officers and afhxed to 



2 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

certain articles of merchandise and in denom- 
inations according to a schedule of taxable value. 

The opposition to this Act was immediate, 
continuous, and bitter in the extreme, and the 
result was that it was repealed March 18, 1766. 

The next move on the part of the Mother 
Country was the passage of a Military Act 
which provided for the partial subsistence of 
armed troops on the Colonies. V^iolent opposi- 
tion to this was also immediate and general, but 
without avail. In Boston one result was a con- 
flict between the troops and the inhabitants on 
March 5, 1770, and now referred to as the 
Boston Massacre. 

In June, 1767, another Act was passed, taxing 
tea and other commodities, which was repealed 
April 12, 1770, on all articles except the tea. 
Large consignments were sent to America. Ships 
thus laden that arrived in New York were sent 
back with their full cargoes. At Charleston 
the tea was landed but remained unsold. At 
Boston, a party disguised as Indians threw it 
from the ship into the sea.* Parliament in con- 
sequence passed the Boston Port Bill, March 7, 
1774, closing Boston as a commercial port, and 
removing the Custom House to Salem in another 
harbor a dozen miles or more northward up the 
coast. 

This Act went into effect June 1, 1774, and 
was immediately felt by all classes, for all com- 
merce ceased. Boston merchants became poor, 
and Boston poor became beggars. The hand of 
relief, however, was extended, even from beyond 



* In a little cemetery at West Fairlee, Vt., is a memorial stone 
which reads "Wm. Cox, died July 27, 1838, Aged 88. He helped 
steep the tea in the Atlantic." His name seems to have been over- 
loolced by historians, so I mention it here. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 3 

the sea. The City of London in its corporate 
capacity subscribed ;^30,000*. In America the 
assistance was Hberal and speedy. George 
Washington headed a subscription paper with 

;^50t. 

These severe measures of Parliament, with 
their natural effect of ruin and starvation among 
the people of America, served to stimulate a 
feeling of insubordination, and hatred of the 
Mother Country, from which crystalized the 
First Continental Congress which assembled at 
Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1774, soon followed by the 
First Provincial Congress of Massachusetts 
which met at Salem, Oct. 7, of the same year. 

On the question of Colonial Government 
Great Britain and her American colonies were 
not divided by the Atlantic Ocean, for on the 
American side the Crown had its ardent sup- 
porters, while on the other side friends of the 
American cause were almost as numerous as 
were the oppressors. We have seen how the 
great City of London contributed liberally to 
the Bostonians, shut off from the world by the 
Port Bill, and on the floor of Parliament many 
gifted orators espoused the American cause. 

With prophetic eloquence the Lord Mayor, 
Mr. Wilkes, exclaimed: 

"This I know, a successful resistance is a 
revolution, not a rebellion . . . Who can tell, 
sir, whether in consequence of this day's violent 
and mad Address to his Majesty, the scabbard 
may not be thrown away by them as well as by 
us ? . . . But I hope the just vengeance of the 
people will overtake the authors of these per- 

* Lossing's History of the United States, page 226. 
t Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, page 326. 



4 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

nicious councils, and the loss of the first province 
of the empire be speedily followed by the loss of 
the heads of those ministers who advised these 
wicked and fatal measures."* 

Lord Chatham in his motion to withdraw the 
troops from Boston, said: 

"As an American I would recognize to Eng- 
land her supreme right of regulating commerce 
and navigation: as an Englishman by birth and 
principle I recognize to the Americans their su- 
preme unalienable right in their property; a 
right in which they are justified in the defence 
of to the last extremity."! 

The Corporation of the City of London passed 
a vote of thanks to Chatham, and to those who 
supported him for having offered to the House 
of Lords a plan to conciliate the differences with 
America. J 

When Lord North's unfriendly proposition 
for conciliating America was introduced, it 
naturally found an advocate in the loyal and 
courtly Gen. Burgoyne — courtly but courage- 
ous; loyal ever to his King but not blind to the 
merits of the claims of the Colonists. While 
modestly pledging his loyalty to the Crown, he 
could not refrain from adding: 

"There is a charm in the very wanderings 
and dreams of liberty that disarms an English- 
man's anger."** 

In the debate on the bill for restraining the 
Trade and Commerce of the English Colonies, 
Lord Camden asked: — 

* Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, cols. 238, 240. 
t Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, col. 154. 
J Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, col. 215. 
*• Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, col. 355. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 5 

"What are the 10,000 men you have just 
voted out to Boston? Merely to save General 
Gage from the disgrace and destruction of being 
sacked in his entrenchments. It is obvious, 
my Lords, that you cannot furnish armies or 
treasure, competent to the mighty purpose of 
subduing America. ... It is impossible that 
this petty island can continue in dependence 
that mighty continent."* 

Continuing, he drew a picture of American 
union and American courage, that in the end 
would prevail. 

The Earl of Sandwich replied : — 

"Suppose the colonists do abound in men, 
what does that signify? They are raw, undis- 
ciplined, cowardly men. I wish instead of 
40 or 50,000 of these brave fellows, they would 
produce in the field at least 200,000, the more 
the better, the easier would be the conquest; 
if they did not run away, they would starve 
themselves into compliance with our measures."! 

And the Bill was passed. 

One has but to read the stirring debates of 
that memorable year in Parliament, over the 
Petitions for Redress of Grievances from Amer- 
ica; over the Petitions for Reconciliation from 
the Merchants of Bristol and of London; over 
the Resolutions offered by its own members; 
and over the addresses to them by their King; — 
to realize that the great question of American 
rights had almost as many, and surely as elo- 
quent advocates, there as here. 

THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS. 
As we have seen, the First Continental Con- 



* Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, cols. 442, 443. 
t Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIH, col. 446. 



6 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

gress assembled at Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1774. 
They met in Carpenter's Hall. The First 
Provincial Congress of Massachusetts met at 
Salem, Oct. 7, following. John Hancock was 
chosen President. In its first set of Resolutions 
it announced: "the necessity of its most vigor- 
ous and immediate exertions for preserving the 
freedom and constitution," of the Province. 

The Royal Governor, Gen. Thos. Gage, had 
issued his writs the first day of September, call- 
ing upon the inhabitants to return representa- 
tives to the Great and General Court to be con- 
vened at Salem on the fifth of October. In the 
meantime, becoming alarmed at the tumults 
and disorders — the extraordinary resolves 
passed by some of the Counties, the instruc- 
tions given by Boston and some other towns to 
their representatives, and the general unhappy 
condition of the Province, he determined that 
the time was not auspicious for such a gathering, 
and accordingly issued a proclamation counter- 
manding the call. However, ninety representa- 
tives met on that day, waited loyally for the 
Governor, and when he failed to appear, ad- 
journed to the next day, Oct. 6, and met as a 
Convention, choosing John Hancock, Chairman. 
Not much in the way of business was accom- 
plished on that day, and they adjourned again, 
until the next, Oct. 7th, when they met and 
declared themselves to be a Provincial Congress 
and chose John Hancock, Permanent Chairman. 

Thus the First Provincial Congress was, 
strictly speaking a self-constituted body, with 
not even the sanction of a popular vote. Yet 
they felt secure in a popular support. They 
could not pass laws, but they could resolve, 
advise and recommend, and such acts were gen- 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 7 

erally heeded by a majority of their fellow 
citizens.* 

The military organization of the Province was 
equally without effective power, as they recog- 
nized no real commanding officer of higher rank 
than Colonel. It is true that the Congress had 
nominated three general officers, but their real 
powers to command were feeble. The minute 
men and militia were enrolled by thousands, 
but they were poorly equipped, without uni- 
forms, and without discipline. They marched 
to Battle Road in company formation, but upon 
arrival or very soon after, manoeuvred and 
fought as individuals simply. 

The Second Provincial Congress, more nearly 
an elective body than the First, realized their 
own lack of authority over the people and 
particularly over the military branch of their 
constituents. They wrote to the Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia, under date of May 16, 
1775, stating that they were compelled to raise 
an army; of their triumph at having one consist- 
ing of their own countrymen; but they admitted 
a lack of civil power to provide for, and control 
it. And they asked for advice from the greater 
congress which represented all the Colonies 
as to the taking up and exercising of the neces- 
sary powers of a civil government. f 

Let us, then, as we go forward with this narra- 
tive, bear these facts in mind, that we may not 
in this very first day of a new nation's struggle 

* See their "advice" to constables and to tax collectors Oct. 14, 
1774, not to pay moneys collected by them to the royal treasurer 
of the province, Hon. Harrison Gray (Journals of Each Provincial 
Congress, page 19) and their "recommendation" to towns, Oct. 28, 
to direct their constables and tax collectors to pay such moneys to 
their appointee as Receiver General, Henry Gardner (Journals of 
Each Provincial Congress, page 38. ) 

t Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 230. 



8 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

for liberty expect too much from those who, 
indeed had the wisdom, had the strength, had 
the courage and the skill, but greatly lacked 
the first elements of a civil government or a 
military force — discipline and efficiency. 

The First Provincial Congress next met in 
Concord, Oct. 11, 1774. Hancock was chosen 
President, an office higher than Permanent 
Chairman. Several following da\s were devoted 
to public business. From there they addressed 
a communication to Gen. Gage, wherein they 
expressed the apprehensions excited in their 
minds by the rigorous execution of the Port Bill; 
by the alteration of the Charter; by the admin- 
istration of justice in the Colony; by the number 
of troops in the capital [Boston] ; and particularly 
by the formidable and hostile preparations on 
Boston Neck. And they asked, rather point- 
edly, "whether an inattentive and unconcerned 
acquiescence in such alarming, and menacing 
measures would not evidence a state of in- 
sanity?" They entreated him to reduce the 
fortress at the entrance to Boston, and concluded 
by assuring his Excellency that they had not 
the least intention of doing any harm to his 
Majesty's troops.* 

Four days later, Oct. 17, sitting at Cambridge, 
they received his reply. It was altogether lack- 
ing in satisfaction. He answered them ^^s to the 
fortification on Boston Neck, th)at "unless an- 
noyed," it would "annoy nobody." And the 
rest of his communication was equally unassur- 
ing. 

Oct. 19, a committee was appointed to in- 
quire into the then present state and operations 

* Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 18. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 9 

of the British Army;* and on Oct. 20, another 
committee to report on what was necessary to 
be done for the safety and defence of the 
Province, t 

Matters were crystallizing very fast, for on 
Oct. 24, a committee was appointed to consider 
and report on the most proper time for the 
Province to provide a stock of powder, ordnance 
and ordnance stores. That same afternoon, 
one of the members, Mr. Bliss, was ordered to 
wait upon the Committee to ascertain their 
reply. They quickly responded that their 
opinion was that "wow" was the proper time to 
procure such a stock. J Another committee was 
at once appointed to take into consideration and 
determine the quantity and expense thereof.** 

On the afternoon of the following day, 
Oct. 25, the schedule was presented to the 
Congress and one of its items called for 1000 
barrels of powder, and the proposed expense 
was ;^10,737. Items were added by the Con- 
gress to increase the amount to ;£20,837. It 
was likewise ordered "that all the matters which 
shall come under consideration before this 
Congress be kept secret. "ft 

Oct. 26, it was resolved that a Committee of 
Safety should be appointed, whose business it 
should be "most carefully and diligently to 
inspect and observe all and every such person 
and persons as shall at any time, attempt or 
enterprise the destruction, invasion, detriment 
or annoyance of this province." And they 

* Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 22. 
t Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 23. 
t Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 29. 
** Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 29. 
tt Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 30. 



10 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

should have the power to alarm, muster and 
cause to be assembled with the utmost expedi- 
tion and completely armed for the defence, 
such of the militia as they shall deem necessary 
for its defence.* And it was also resolved that 
as the security of the lives, liberties and 
properties of these inhabitants depend on their 
skill in the art military and in their being 
properly and effectively armed, it was therefore 
recommended that they immediately provide 
themselves therewith.! 

On Oct. 27, Congress appointed a Committee 
of Safety consisting of nine members, three 
from Boston and six from the country, John 
Hancock, Chairman, and also a Commissary, or 
Committee of Supplies, consisting of five mem- 
bers.J At a subsequent meeting on the same 
day, Jedidiah Preble was elected to be chief in 
command and Artemas Ward, second.** 

Oct. 27 a vote was passed recommending that 
the inhabitants perfect themselves in the military 
art.ft On that same day a committee was 
appointed to wait upon his excellency the 
governor to express their surprise at his active 
warlike preparations, and to announce that their 
constituents would not expect them to be 
guided by his. advice.JJ But before the con- 
clusion of this session another resolution was 
passed to the effect that the lives and liberties 
of the inhabitants depended upon their knowl- 
edge and skill in the military art.*** 

* Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 32. 
t Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 34. 
J Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 35. 
** Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 35. 
tt Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 41. 
J J Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 45. 
*** Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 48. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 11 

The F'irst Provincial Congress was dissolved 
Dec. 10, 1774, every session of its deliberations 
having been devoted to the Civil Rights and 
Liberties of the People over which it had pre- 
sided. 

The Second Provincial Congress was con- 
vened in Concord Feb. 1, 1775. One of its 
earliest acts, Feb. 9, was to appoint Hon. 
Jedidiah Preble, Hon. Artemas Ward, Col. Seth 
Pomeroy, Col. John Thomas and Col. William 
Heath, general officers.* The same day, in an 
address to the Inhabitants of the Massachusetts 
Bay they said, "Though we deprecate a rupture 
with the Mother State, yet we must urge you to 
every preparation for your necessary defence. "f 

Nor were the Indians neglected in these 
strong appeals to the patriotism of the inhabit- 
ants of the Massachusetts Bay, for under date 
of April 1, 1775, an address was issued to 
Johoiakin Mothskin and the rest of the Indians 
of Stockbridge, expressing great pleasure 
that they were "willing to take up the hatchet," 
and announcing that Col. Paterson and Capt. 
Goodridge should present each that had enlisted 
a blanket and a ribbon. A committee was also 
appointed to address the chief of the Mohawks.J 

The Committee of Safety met for the first 
time at the house of Capt. Stedman, in Cam- 
bridge, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 1774, and organized, 
as we have stated, with John Hancock, Chair- 
man. John Pigeon was chosen clerk. Their 
first vote' after organization was a recommenda- 
tion to the Committee of Supplies to procure as 
soon as may be, 335 barrels of pork, 700 barrels- 

* Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 90. 
t Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 92. 
} Journals of each Provincial Congress, pages 116, 117. 



12 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

of flour, 20 tierces of rice, 300 bushels of peas, 
and that these be distributed in Worcester and 
Concord. On Nov. 8, following, in joint meet- 
ing with the Committee on Supplies, the latter 
was advised to procure all of the arms and 
ammunition possible from the neighboring 
provinces, and that they might with safety 
engage to pay for the same on arrival. 

At subsequent meetings various military 
stores were liberally provided. With a unani- 
mous vote on Feb. 21, 1775, by both committees 
in joint session, it was decided that the Com- 
mittee of Supplies should purchase all kinds of 
military stores sufficient for an army of 15,000 
men.* It did not then seem to them as if a 
peaceful solution of the estrangement were 
longer possible. 

The last meeting of the Provincial Congress 
before the battle, was held in Concord, April 15, 
and when it adjourned it was until May 10. 
But considering "the great uncertainty of the 
present times," it was provided, however, that a 
call might issue for an earlier assembling. Only 
two days elapsed before apprehensions of imme- 
diate danger arose, which grew so intense, that 
Richard Devens on the 18th, issued a summons 
for immediate assembling at Concord. Al- 
though it was circulated with the greatest dis- 
patch many of the members could not have 
learned of it before the marching of the British 
troops on that same night from Boston Common. 

The meeting was finally assembled on April 22, 
and quickly adjourned to Watertown, evidently 
to be in closer touch with the thrilling events 
that had so dramatically opened. f 

* Journals of Each Provincial Congress, pages 505, 509. 
t Journals of Each Provincial Congress, pages 146-7. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 13 

BRITISH FORCES IN BOSTON. 

General Thomas Gage, Commander of the 
British forces in America, and successor of 
Thomas Hutchinson as Governor of Massachu- 
setts Bay, landed in Boston, May 13, 1774. 
Inspired by a hope that his administration 
might soften the feeling of resentment against 
the Mother Country, by annulling some of its 
causes, his reception on the 17th was dignified 
and cordial. He was greeted with cheers by 
the multitude, the firing of salutes in his honor, 
and a lavish banquet in Faneuil Hall.* A few 
weeks before he had assured his king that the 
Americans "will be lions while we are lambs; 
but if we take the resolute part they will prove 
very weak."t 

His military force then in Boston was less 
than 4,000 men, J and consisted of the Fourth 
or King's Own; Fifth; Tenth; Seventeenth:: 
3 Companies of the Eighteenth; Twenty-second; 
Twenty-third ; Thirty-eighth ; Forty-third ; 
Forty-fourth ; Forty-seventh ; Fifty-second ; 
Fifty-ninth; Sixty-third; Sixty-fourth ; six 
or eight Companies of Artillery; and six or eight 
Companies of Marines, numbering 460, under 
Major Pitcairn.** 

* Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of tlie U. S., page 330. 

t Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the U. S., page 318. 

j Hale in Memorial History of Boston, III, 79. 

** This list I make up from a document from among the Swett 
papers, and an article in the Atlantic Monthly, April, 1877, entitled 
A British Officer in Boston in 1775. The Swett MSS. is interesting 
as giving the distinctive uniforms as follows: 

Fourth or King's Own, red faced with white; 5th, Lord Percy, 
red faced with blue; 10th, red faced with green; 17th, Light Dra- 
goons, red faced with yellow; 22d, Gen. Gage, red faced with white; 
23d, Gen. Howe, red faced with blue; 38th, Gen. Piget, red faced 
with yellow; 43rd, red faced with light buff; 44th, red faced with 
yellow; 52d, red faced with white; 59th, called the Pompadours, 
red faced with crimson; 63d, red faced with yellow; 64th, red faced 
with black; artillery, blue faced with red; Marines, red faced with 
white. 

Some of these were encamped on the Common. 



14 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Major Gen. Heath is the authority for the 
statement that the Provincial Congress ap- 
pointed a committee to make inquiry into the 
state of operation of the British Army in Boston, 
and on the 20th of March, they reported that 
there were about 2,850 men distributed as 
follows: Boston Common, about 1,700; Fort 
Hill, 400; Boston Neck, 340; in Barracks at the 
Castle, about 330; King Street, 80; that they 
were erecting works at Boston Neck on both 
sides of the way, well constructed and well 
executed. The works were in forwardness and 
mounted with ten brass and two iron cannon. 
The old fortification at the entrance of the 
town was replaced and rendered much stronger 
by the addition of timber and earth to the 
parapet, and ten pieces of iron cannon were 
mounted on the old platform. A block house 
had been brought from Governor's Island and 
was being erected on the south side of the 
Neck.* 

But a short time was required to show that 
in every political question Gen. Gage was loyal 
to his king. Accordingly throughout the Prov- 
ince the press, the pulpit, the expression of 
opinion in public meetings, while professing 
loyalty to the king personally, were extremely 
bitter against his representative in command. 

Conventions were held in the various Counties 
of the Province, the earliest one being in Berk- 
shire County, July 6, 1774, followed by the one 
in Worcester County, Aug. 9. Resolutions 
were passed at each, professing loyalty to the 
king, but remonstrating strongly against Parlia- 
ment. It was left for the Middlesex County 

* Heath's Memoirs, written by himself. Boston, 1798. Page 11. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 15 

Convention, August 30, to pass resolutions that 
rang throughout the Province. While also 
professing loyalty to the King their final sen- 
tence was: ,■ 

"No danger shall affright, no difficulties in- 
timidate us; and if in support of our rights we 
are called to encounter even death, we are yet 
undaunted, sensible that he can never die too 
soon, who lays down his life in support of the 
laws and liberty of his country." 

These resolutions were passed by a vote of 
146 yeas against 4 nays.* 

Although the town of Boston itself was the 
headquarters of Gen. Gage, and his soldiers 
were parading in its streets, and encamping on 
its Common, the patriots had by no means 
deserted it. There were several secret societies 
who made it their business to watch for and 
report hostile movements and plans. These 
were the "North End Caucus;" the "South End 
Caucus;" the "Middle District Caucus;" and 
the "Long Room Club;" all of which owned 
allegiance to the "Sons of Liberty," a body 
which acted in the capacity of a higher council 
and which kept itself in close communication 
with similar organizations outside of this Prov- 
ince. Members of these various bodies paraded 
the streets nightly, that any sudden or unusual 
movement of the army might be at once re- 
ported. Paul Revere belonged to one or more 
of these, and was active in patriotic work. 

Nor was Gen. Gage idle in acquiring informa- 
tion about the Provincial Army being assembled, 
and the topographical features of the country 
around Boston. His troops were especially 



• Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 114. 



/^> 



16 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

trained by marches, over the highways in the 
vicinity,* and his spies brought him maps and 
reports from the scenes of his possible future 
operations. The t\¥0 that acted for him in this 
secret service were^Capt. Brown of the 52nd 
regiment, and Ensign D'Bernicre of the 10th 
regiment. They were disguised in "brown 
clothes" with "reddish handkerchiefs" tied 
about their necks, and were accompanied by 
a servant. All three were well armed. 

Gen. Gage's instructions to them, under date 
of Feb. 22, 1775, called for description of the 
roads, rivers, and hills; available places for en- 
campments; whether or not the churches and 
church yards were advantageous spots to take 
post in and capable of being made defensible. 
They were also told that information would be 
useful in reference to the provisions, forage, etc., 
that could be obtained at the several places they 
should pass through. 

Their first trip was to Worcester, in the 
latter part of February, and their next one to 
Concord, for which place they set out on 
March 20, passing through Roxbury, Brookline, 
and Weston, where they stopped at the Jones 
Tavern. 

Then they proceeded through Sudbury, 
crossed over the South Bridge into Concord 
village, where they were entertained by a Mr. 
Bliss, a friend of the royal government. 

Wherever they went their mission was known 
in spite of their disguises. They succeeded, 

* Rev. Mr. Gordon, of Roxbury, wrote a very intere.sting account 
of the commencement of hostilities which was published in the 
North American Almanack for 1776. He speaks of one of their 
practice marches, on March 30, when about 100 men marched to 
Jamaica Plain, by way of Dorchester and back to Boston, about 
five miles. On this particular march the soldiers amused themselves 
by pushing over stone walls 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 



17 



however, in bringing back to Gen. Gage a very 
tolerable description of the country, and so ful- 
filled their mission. In Concord, especially, 
they located many of the provincial military 
stores, information particularly useful to the 
invading force on April 19th. 

Having thus possessed himself of sufficient 
data, Gen. Gage then laid his plans for a mid- 
night march to Lexington and Concord with 
the view, possibly, of capturing Hancock and 
Adams, who were known to be at the former 
place, and especially of destroying all the war- 
like supplies that had been gathered at Concord. 

April 15, the grenadiers and light infantry 
had been relieved from duty, with the excuse 
that they were to learn a new exercise. That 
night, about twelve o'clock, boats belonging to 
the transports which had been hauled up for 
repairs were launched and moored under the 
sterns of the men-o-war.* The Somerset was 
anchored near the Charlestown Ferry. f These 
movements awakened the suspicions of Dr. 
Warren, who lost no time in notifying Hancock 
and Adams, then at Lexington. On the after- 
noon of April 18th, he learned from several 
sources that the British were about to move. 
A gunsmith named Jasper, learned as much 
from a British sergeant and lost no time in 
informing Col. Waters of the Committee of 
Safety, who in turn gave the news to Warren. J 
John Ballard, connected with the stable in 
Milk Street, overheard some one in the Province 
House remark that there would "be hell to pay 
tomorrow;" a remark so full of significance 



* Frothingham's Siege of Boston, page 56. 
t Holland, pages 7, 8. 
j Holland, page 9. 



18 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

that he reported it to a friend of liberty in Ann 
Street, thought to have been William Dawes, 
who in turn reported it to Paul Revere.* 

That night Gen. Gage despatched ten or more 
sergeants, partially disguised, along the high- 
ways in Cambridge and beyond, towards 
Concord. They were instructed to intercept 
any passers-by, and so prevent his intended 
movement from becoming known. A party of 
his officers dined at Wetherby's Tavernf in 
Menotomy (now Arlington), where also met 
that day the Committee of Safety and Com- 
mittee of Supplies, some of whom, Mr. Gerry, 
Col. Orne and Col. Lee, remained to pass the 
night.t 

Solomon Brown of Lexington, a young man 
nineteen years old, was the first to report in that 
town the unusual occurrence of so many officers 
along the highways in the night, and it was sur- 
mised there that the capture of Hancock and 
Adams was intended. Brown was returning 
home from Boston when they passed him on 
the road. Somehow gaining the front again 
he rode rapidly into Lexington village and 
reported what he had seen. Sergeant Munroe 
and eight men were sent to guard the parsonage 
where the patriot statesmen were stopping, and 
Solomon Brown, Jonathan Loring, and Elijah 
Sanderson, all members of Captain Parker's 
Company of Minute Men, were despatched to 
watch the officers after they had passed through 
Lexington toward Concord. They followed 
them on horseback into Lincoln, about two 



* Holland, page 9. 

t Known also as the Black Horse Tavern. 

X Frothingham, page 10. 




BOSTON AND VICINITY, 1775-6. 



1 X Lieut. Col. Smith's starting place. 

2 X His landing place in Cambridge. 

3, 3, 3. Earl Percy's route from Boston to Cambridge. 
Top of map is north. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 19 

and a half miles from Lexington village, where 
they were ambushed by the ones they were 
following, and taken prisoners. It was then 
about 10 o'clock in the evening of April 18th. 
They were detained until Revere was also 
captured at the same place a few hours later, 
early in the morning of the 19th. 

THE BRITISH START FOR LEXINGTON 
AND CONCORD. 

The grenadiers and light infantry under com- 
mand of Lieut. Col. Francis Smith, of the 10th 
Regiment, augmented by a detachment of 
Marines under Major John Pitcairn, assembled 
at the foot of Boston Common, on the evening 
of April 18th, and at about half-past ten o'clock 
embarked for Lechmere Point, or, as it was often 
called at that time, Phip's Farm, in East Cam- 
bridge. They numbered about eight hundred 



men. 



* 



The "Foot of the Common," was not far from 
the present corner of Boylston and Charles 
Streets, and just there was the shore line of the 
Back Bay, a large body of water opening out 
into the Charles River. Since then the Bay has 
been filled in and is now an attractive residential 
district bearing still its ancient aquatic name 
however. 

The transportation was by means of the row 
boats connected with the British men-of-war 
and transports, and was thus necessarily slow, 
and undoubtedly required several trips. It 
seems probable that their course was westerly 
a little way, along the present Boylston Street, 



• Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 



20 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

then northerly along the present Arlington 
Street, into the Charles River and across to 
Lechmere Point, a distance of about a mile and 
a quarter. 

They landed in the marshes nearly opposite 
the Court House on Second Street, for East 
Cambridge also was much smaller then than 
now. The water was too shallow to allow the 
heavily loaded boats to reach dry land, so 
the troops waded knee deep to the shore. There 
they were halted in a "dirty road," as one of the 
British officers present termed it,* and detained 
still longer, that each might receive a day's 
rations and thirty-six rounds of ammunition. 

THE MESSENGERS OF ALARM. 

The invading army safely across the Charles 
River was now really on its way, but with all its 
precautions for secrecy, its coming was even at 
that moment being heralded in every direction. 
The ever-vigilant Sons of Liberty had noticed 
the unusual movements of the troops after dark, 
and so informed Dr. Warren. He quickly 
summoned William Dawes and Paul Revere. 
Dawes arriving first was the first to start, and 
his route to Lexington was through Roxbury. 
So to him belongs the credit of being the first 
messenger out of Boston bearing the alarm of 
the British invasion. Paul Revere came soon 
after and was carried over the Charles River 
considerably farther down than the British 
soldiers were crossing, and landed in Charles- 
town. His route to Lexington was much 
shorter than the one through Roxbury. 



* Diary of a British Officer in Boston in 1775. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 21 

Dr. Warren had arranged with these two 
men for this especial work, and so they were 
ready. Dawes had left home that afternoon, 
not even confiding to his wife his intention. Im- 
mediately after the embarkation he was ready 
and on his way. He managed to elude the 
guard at Boston Neck by passing out with 
some soldiers. His ride was then through 
Roxbury, Brookline, Brighton, over the Charles 
River there by bridge into Cambridge, at 
Harvard Square, and thence directly on to 
Lexington. So much longer was his route than 
Revere's, that he did not reach there until half 
an hour later than Revere did, and then found 
that Hancock and Adams had been alarmed. 
The work of William Dawes was efficient over 
the route he traveled. In Lexington, Revere 
waited for Dawes, and from there onwards 
toward Concord they traveled together. It is 
to be regretted that a more detailed account of 
the ride of William Dawes cannot be given. 
But momentary flashes of light reveal his 
course and his work. Revere left a narrative of 
his ride, and historians have fallen into the error 
of supposing him to be the only messenger with 
the warlike tidings. As we progress with this 
narrative we shall surmise that William Dawes 
and Paul Revere were but two out of many, for 
the exciting news radiated in every direction^ 
and could only have been borne by riders 
equally as patriotic and fleet as those two. 

The previous Sunday evening Paul Revere 
had been out to Lexington, for a conference 
with Hancock and Adams, and on his return 
that same night to Charlestown he had agreed 
with Col. Conant and some others to display 



22 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

lanterns in the North Church steeple, if the 
troops should march; one lantern if they went 
by land, which meant out over Boston Neck, 
through Roxbury, Brookline, and Brighton, into 
Harvard Square, Cambridge ; and two, if they 
crossed the Charles River in boats and landed 
at Lechmere Point in East Cambridge. This 
arrangement was made because it was surmised 
that no messenger would be allowed to leave 
Boston with the news while the troops were 
leaving. 

When Revere left Warren his first duty was 
to call upon Capt. John Pulling, Jr.,* and 
arrange for the signal lanterns. Then he went 
to his home in North Square for his boots and 
surtout, and from there to where his boat was 
moored beneath a cob-wharf, near the present 
Craigie Bridge, in the north part of the town. 
Two friends accompanied him, Joshua Bentley 
and Thomas Richardson, f 

Their point of starting was not far from the^ 
then Charlestown Ferry, the boats of which 
were drawn up nightly at nine o'clock. Out in 
the Charles River was anchored the Somerset, a 
British man-of-war. It was young flood, and 
the moon was rising. { Fearing that the noise 
of the oars in the oar-locks might alarm the 
sentry, Revere despatched one of his compan- 
ions for something to muffle them with, who 
soon returned with a petticoat, yet warm from 
the body of a fair daughter of Liberty who was 



* Boston Sunday Globe, Apr. 19, 1908. Article on Lanterns Hung 
in the Steeple. 

t Goss, E. H., Life of Paul Revere. 

% Full moon April 15. Moon rose on April 18, at 9.45 P. M. 
Low's Almanack for 1775. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 23 

glad to contribute to the cause.* Rowing out 
into the river and passing to the eastward of 
the Somerset they looked back and there shining 
from the tall steeple of Christ Church, the Old 
North, were two signal lanterns. 

Far up into the valleys of the Mystic and the 
Charles, those twinkling rays gleamed, and 
their meaning picked up wherever it fell, was 
carried still farther to the remoter hamlets and 
villages beyond the hills. 

When Capt. Pulling left Paul Revere he 
proceeded at once to the home of the sexton of 
Christ Church, Robert Newman, who lived on 
Salem St., opposite Bennett St. Pulling was 
vestryman of the church and when he demanded 
the keys of Newman they were handed to him 
without question. Pulling proceeded to the 
church, climbed the belfry stairs, hung two 
lighted lanterns out of the highest Httle window, 
forty-two feet above the sidewalk,! descended 
and made his exit through a window, and so 
escaped unnoticed. 

These lanterns were seen by all who looked, 
and quickly British soliders sought out the 
sexton and placed him under arrest. His 
denial of any knowledge as to who displayed 
the lanterns was believed, and he was released. 
Pulling, disguised as a sailor, escaped from 
Boston in a fishing vessel, landed in Nantucket, 
and did not return until after the siege. J 



* She was an ancestor of John R. Adan, and lived in the Ochter- 
long-Adan house at the corner of North and North Centre Streets. 
Goss, Life of Paul Revere. 

t Goss, Life of Paul Revere. 

X Capt. John Pulling, Jr., was son of John and Martha Pulling. 
Bom in Boston, Feb. 18, 1737. Resided on corner of Ann and 
Cross Streets in 1775. Died in 1787. Goss, Life of Paul Revere. 



24 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Revere and his two companions reached the 
Charlestown shore in safety. Their landing 
place was near the old battery at Gage's 
Wharf, not far from No. 85 of the present 
Water St., near City Square. They were met 
by Col. Conant and several others, who re- 
ported that the lanterns had been seen and 
interpreted. While Revere was waiting for 
his horse, which was furnished by Deacon 
Larkin, Richard Devens, one of the Committee 
of Safety, came and told Revere that as he 
came down the road from Lexington after 
sundown that evening, he met ten British 
ofificers, all well mounted and armed, going up 
the road. 

It was about 11 o'clock when Revere started 
from the Charlestown shore on his mission to 
alarm. He had intended to proceed over 
Charlestown Neck, through Somerville to Cam- 
bridge and thence to Lexington. Just such a 
ride as his had been anticipated, for he had 
gone but a short distance along the Cambridge 
road beyond Charlestown Neck, when he per- 
ceived two mounted British officers halted under 
the shadows of a tree in a narrow part of the 
road.* Near by was the gibbet where Mark, 
the negro slave, executed in 1755 for poisoning 
his master, hung in chains for about fifteen 
years. 

Revere wheeled his horse and made his 
escape, retreating along the road to the Neck, 
then turning into the Mystic road, which runs 
over Winter Hill into Medford.f There he 
awakened the Captain of the Minute Men, 

* In Somerville on Washington Street, near Crescent Street, 
t Now Broadway and Main Street, in Somerville, and Main Street 
in Medford. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 25 

Isaac Hall, and alarmed almost if not every 
house on the way to Lexington. His road was 
through West Medford to Arlington Centre, 
there turning at the Cooper Tavern north- 
westerly towards Lexington. He reached the 
parsonage in Lexington at midnight, which 
then stood on the westerly side of the Bedford 
Road about a quarter of a mile beyond the 
Common.* Within were sleeping John Han- 
cock and Samuel Adams. Keeping guard out- 
side were eight men under Sergeant William 
Munroe, who cautioned Revere not to make 
too much noise, lest he should awaken the 
family, who had just retired. 

"Noise," exclaimed Revere, "You'll have 
noise enough before long. The regulars are 
coming out." 

But he had already alarmed the inmates, 
for the window was raised, and the parson, 
Mr. Clarke, inquired who was there. Revere, 
without answering the question, said he wished 
to see Mr. Hancock. 

"Come in. Revere," exclaimed Hancock, 
who also had been awakened, "we are not afraid 
of you." 

Half an hour later Dawes rode up from his 
longer ride from Boston.* They partook of 
refreshments and together set out for Concord. 
Not far beyond Lexington Common they were 
overtaken by a young man, Dr. Samuel Pres- 
cott, whose home was in Concord. That 
evening he had been visiting the young lady 
to whom he was engaged to be married, Miss 

* Bedford Road is now called Hancock Street and a newer road 
to Bedford is called Bedford Street. The old parsonage is still 
standing, though moved from its original location to a few rods 
■across the street. 

t Revere's ride was 12|| miles and Dawes's ride was 16|| miles. 



26 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19. 1775. 

Mulliken of Lexington. Revere spoke of the 
ten officers that Devens had met, and of the 
probability that they would attempt to stop 
them before they should reach Concord. It 
was planned to alarm every house on the way. 
Dr. Prescott volunteered to remain with the 
two riders, as his acquaintance with the people 
along the road might be needed to vouch for the 
genuineness of the message. 

His company was accepted and very welcome. 
They rode along, alarming each household, a 
little over two and a half miles from Lexington 
Common. Dawes and Prescott had stopped at a 
house to arouse the inmates, and Revere was 
about a hundred rods ahead, when he saw 
two men in the highway. He called loudly for 
Dawes and Prescott to come up, thinking to 
capture them, but just then two more appeared, 
coming through the bars from a pasture on the 
right, or northerly side of the road, where they 
had been standing in the shadow of a tree. 
They proved to be officers of the British Army. 
Dawes wheeled his horse back towards Lexington 
and escaped. Prescott and Revere attempted 
to ride towards Concord, but were intercepted 
and ordered to move through the bars into the 
pasture or have their brains blown out. They 
preferred to do as ordered, but when a little 
way inside, Prescott said to Revere, "put on," 
and immediately jumped his horse over the 
stone wall at his left and disappeared down the 
farm road leading into a ravine where rise the 
headwaters of the Shawsheen River. He knew 
the location well, and easily followed the road 
through the thicket until it comes out on the 
Concord road again, a half mile or so beyond. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 27 

Revere, not so well acquainted with the location, 
headed towards the dense woods on the lower 
edge of the pasture, thinking to dismount 
within their shadows and escape on foot. Six 
more British officers were in hiding there, and 
they easily seized his horse's bridle and with 
pistols levelled at his breast ordered him tO' 
dismount. 

And so there in Lincoln, about two and one- 
half miles beyond Lexington, ended the mid- 
night rides of William Dawes and Paul Revere. 
Prescott had gone on to continue the alarm, 
Dawes had retreated towards Lexington, and 
Revere was a prisoner. While the latter was 
being secured, three or four of the officers 
started up the road in pursuit of Dawes, who 
galloped his horse furiously up to a farm house, 
where he reined in so suddenly that he was. 
thrown to the ground. With great presence of 
mind he shouted loudly for assistance, exclaim- 
ing:— 

"Hallo, my boys. I've got two of 'em." 

The British in pursuit supposing they were 
ambushed in turn, retreated and made good 
their escape. Dawes rose from the ground and 
found himself quite alone, for the house, which 
might have contained a force of American 
minute men, was empty and deserted. He 
mounted his horse and rode leisurely away.* 

But Revere was not the only prisoner cap- 
tured by the British officers in Lincoln. Solo- 



* Unfortunately no poet has ever thought the ride of William 
Dawes a sufficiently thrilling one for a place in poetic literature. 
When he left the farm house he rode into obscurity. For the 
incidents in Lincoln that he took part in, I am indebted to 
his granddaughter, Mrs. Mehitable May Goddard, as narrated in 
Henry W. Holb.nd's book, William Dawes and his Ride With. 
Paul Revere. 



28 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

moil Brown, Jonathan Loring, and Elijah 
Sanderson, all of Lexington, had been passing 
along at that place about ten o'clock, the pre- 
vious evening (for it is now after midnight, 
April 19th), and were detained and being held 
as prisoners when Revere was added. A one- 
handed peddler, Allen by name, was also a 
prisoner, having been captured after Brown 
and his two companions. For some reason he 
was not long delayed, but released, and went 
his way. 

Revere was ordered to dismount and one 
of the six proceeded to examine him, asking his 
name; if he was an express; and what time he 
left Boston. He answered each question truth- 
fully, and added that the troops in passing the 
river had got aground; that he had alarmed the 
country on the way up; and that 500 Americans 
would soon be present. This was rather dis- 
turbing news for his captors, and the one who 
had acted as spokesman rode to the four who 
had first halted the messengers. After a short 
conference the five returned on a gallop, and 
one of them, whom Revere afterwards found to 
be Major Mitchell of the Fifth Regiment, 
clapped a pistol to his head, and, calling him by 
name, said he should ask him some questions, 
and if they were not answered truthfully, he 
should blow his brains out. Revere answered 
the many questions, some of them new ones 
and some the same as he had already answered. 
He was then directed to mount, and the whole 
party proceeded towards Lexington. After 
riding about a mile Major Mitchell instructed 
the officer leading Revere's horse to turn him 
over to the Sergeant who was instructed to 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 29 

blow the prisoner's brains out, if he attempted 
to escape, or if any insults were offered to his 
captors on the way. 

When within half a mile of Lexington meeting- 
house, on the Common, they heard a gun fired, 
and Major Mitchell, beginning to feel alarmed, 
asked Revere its cause, who told him it was an 
alarm. The other prisoners were then ordered 
to dismount, one of the officers cut the bridles 
of their horses and drove them away. Revere 
asked to be discharged, also, but his request was 
not heeded. 

Coming a little nearer to the meeting-house, 
within sight of it, in fact, they heard a volley 
of gun shots, whereupon Major Mitchell called 
a halt, and questioned Revere again, as to 
the distance to Cambridge, and if there were 
two roads going there, etc. He then ordered 
him to dismount and exchange horses with the 
Sergeant, who cut away bridle and saddle from 
his own, which was a small one and well nigh 
exhausted, before completing the exchange.* 

The officers then hastily disappeared down 
the road towards Lexington meeting-house, and 
Revere made his way, probably afoot, across 
the old cemetery and the adjacent pasture near 
Lexington Common, to the parsonage on 
Bedford Road, where he had left Hancock and 
Adams a few hours earlier. 

The entire distance that Revere rode, from 
the Charlestown shore to the spot in Lincoln 
where he was captured, and back to Lexington 



* Tradition says that Deacon Larkin's horse died from the effects 
of the strenuous ride of Revere, but it is probable that his second 
rider may have been equally or more of a contributory cause, as 
Revere's ride was not long and fast enough to kill a horse in sound 
condition. 



30 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Common, was between 18 and 19 miles, and 
the elapsed time nearly four hours. 



FLIGHT OF HANCOCK AND ADAMS. 

The narration of Revere's adventures was 
eagerly listened to by the patriots assembled at 
the parsonage. Hancock and Adams were 
urged to flee by their friends. Hancock was 
loth to do so, but Adams persuaded him that 
their duties were executive rather than military, 
so they prepared for a hasty retreat. Their 
flight commenced in a chaise driven by Jonas 
Clarke, son of the minister.* Mr. Lowell, 
Hancock's secretary, and Paul Revere, accom- 
panied them for two miles into Burlington, 
where they stopped, first at the house of Mr. 
Reed for a little time, and then continued 
farther on to the home of Madame Jones, 
widow of Rev. Thomas Jones and of Rev. Mr. 
Marrett. Then they sent back to the parsonage 
for Hancock's betrothed, Dorothy Quincy, his 
aunt, Mrs. Hancock, and lastly, a "fine salmon," 
which had been presented to them for dinner, 
and naturally forgotten as they started on their 
flight. All of these arrived in due time, and 
then Revere and Lowell returned to Lexington 
Common, with the intention of rescuing a 
trunk and its contents which belonged to 
Hancock, and which he had left at the Buckman 
Tavern. 

The fugitives were about to sit down to the 
salmon dinner when a Lexington farmer, in great 
excitement, rushed in exclaiming, that the 
British were coming, and that his wife was even 

* Holland. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 31 

then in "eternity." The salmon dinner was 
abandoned, and the flight continued under the 
guidance of Mr. Marrett, to Amos Wyman's, 
where they finally sat down to a dinner, not of 
salmon, but of cold salt pork and potatoes 
served on a wooden tray. The last stopping 
place was just over the boundary line of Woburn 
into Billerica, easterly from the present Lowell 
Turnpike, and northerly from the Lexington 
parsonage about four miles. 

Samuel Adams had left behind him some- 
where on the road his immortal saying: — 

"What a glorious morning for America is 
this."* 

Revere and Lowell reached Buckman Tavern, 
and there learned from a man who had just 
come up the road that the troops were within 
two miles. They proceeded to a chamber for 
the trunk, which they secured, and looking out 
of the window towards Boston, saw the King's 
soldiers but a Httle way off. They quickly 
made their exit from the Tavern, passed along 
the Common through Captain Parker's Com- 
pany, or rather a small part of it, and heard his 
words : — 

"Let the troops pass by and don't molest 
them without they begin first." f 

* It has sometimes been written that Hancock and Adams first 
went to a little wooded hill southeasterly from the parsonage 
overlooking Lexington Common, and perhaps half a mile away, 
and where they remained concealed until after the British had 
passed, and that Adams, looking down upon that first scene of 
bloodshed expressed himself as above quoted. But I cannot recon- 
cile that statement with Revere's own version of the flight wherein 
he speaks of going with them two miles and then returning for 
Hancock's trunk at the Buckman Tavern, and which he succeeded 
in getting just before the British arrived there at five o'clock. 
Thus Adams could not have witnessed the opening scene on Lex- 
ington Common. 

t Revere's Narrative. Otherwise quoted as "Don't fire unless 
fired upon, but if they want war, let it begin here." Lexington 
Hist. Soc. L 46. 



32 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

When a little farther along, ''not half gun 
shot off,'' as Revere expresses it, he heard a 
single gun, turned and saw the smoke of it 
rising just in front of the troops, heard them 
give a great shout, saw them run a few paces^ 
heard irregular firing as of an advance guard, 
and then firing by platoons. 

The American Revolution had indeed com- 
menced. 



ALARMS IN OTHER PLACES. 

It must not be imagined that information of 
the night march of the troops was known only 
along the highway to their destination in 
Concord. There were fleet messengers in every 
direction, through the Counties of Middlesex 
and Essex and Norfolk. Those lanterns in the 
North Church steeple meant as much to many 
others as to those on the Charlestown shore. 
But few details of their rides have been left to 
us. Yet everywhere the hoof-beats, the shad-' 
owy form of the horseman — his cry of alarm, 
the drums — the bells — the guns — the as- 
sembling of the minute men, — their hurried 
march towards that one long and thin highway 
from Boston to Concord ; some of these are 
known, and can be written of, as a part of the 
record of that day. 

Northerly along the coast the alarm went. 
At Lynn, ten miles away, the inhabitants were 
aAvakcned in the early morn of the 19th, by the 
information that 800 British soldiers had left 
Boston in the night and were proceeding to- 
wards Concord. Many immediately set out for 
the scene of the invasion, singly and in little 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 33 

bands, without waiting to march in company 
file.* 

At Woburn, ten miles from Boston, a man 
rode up to the house of Mr. Douglass, about an 
hour before sunrise — and knocked loudly at 
the door, saying: 

"There is an alarm — the British are com- 
ing out; and if there is any soldier in the house 
he must turn out and repair to Lexington as 
soon as possible."! 

Such is the sworn statement of Robert 
Douglass, who lived in Portland, Maine, but 
who was then staying at his father's home in 
Woburn. He arose and started for Lexington, 
four miles away, with Sylvanus Wood. And 
Douglass, upon arrival, paraded with Capt. 
Parker's Company. Col. Loammi Baldwin 
resided in Woburn, and entered in his diary 
some of his experiences of the day. Under date 
of April 19, he says that in the morning a little 
before the break of day, they were alarmed by 
Mr. Stedman's express from Cambridge. With 
others he hurried to Lexington, but could not 
reach the Common in time to participate in the 
opening struggle. They saw the stains of 
blood on the ground, hurried on to Lincoln, and 
at Tanner's Brook commenced to harass the 
British on their return. J 

In Reading, twelve miles from Boston, alarm 
guns were fired, just at sunrise. Edmund Foster 
in a letter to Col. Daniel Shattuck, of Concord, 
dated March 10, 1825, speaks at length of his 
personal experiences. Following the guns came 

* Levels and Newhall's History of Lynn, page 338. 

t Deposition of Robert Douglass. 

t Beneath Old Roof Trees. A. E. Brown. 



34 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

a post, bringing the information that the 
Regulars had gone to Concord. 

In Danvers, sixteen miles away, news of the 
British advance was given at about 9 o'clock, 
and was communicated to the citizens by bells 
and drums, who responded by thronging to the 
rendezvous near the Old South Church at the 
bend of the Boston Road. Women were there, 
not with entreaty, but to fasten on the belt, 
and gird on the sword.* 

At Andover, twenty-five miles away, the 
alarm was given at about sunrise, and minute- 
men were ready to march for Concord at about 
10 o'clock. On their way through Tewksbury 
they learned that eight Americans had been 
killed at Lexington; and at Billerica, that the 
British were killing Americans at Concord. 
Reaching Bedford they learned more definitely 
that two Americans had been killed at Concord, 
and that the enemy was falling back.f 

Lexington lies in a northwesterly direction 
from Boston, at a distance of about eleven miles. 
At that time it was the abiding place of John 
Hancock and Samuel Adams who were stopping 
at the parsonage of Rev. Jonas Clarke. It was 
then supposed that one of the objects of Gen. 
Gage was to effect their capture, and that his 
other object was the destruction of military 
stores at Concord. Possibly the first intima- 
tion that Lexington had of the proposed hostile 
visit of Gage's troops was communicated by a 
young man, Solomon Brown, who had been to 
Boston, on market business, and on his return 



* Hansen's History of Beverly, page 88; Hurd's Middlesex 
County, II, page 1010. 

t Journal of Thomas Boynton of Capt. Ames's Company, and 
Hurd's History of Essex County, II., page 1572. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 35 

had passed a patrol of British officers. There 
were ten of them, it was late in the afternoon, 
or early evening of April 18, and they were 
riding away from Boston towards Lexington, 
which seemed out of harmony with their ordi- 
nary way of riding back to Boston at night. 
Mr. Brown kept somewhat near them along 
the road for awhile, that he might the better 
determine their intentions, allowing them to 
pass and repass him several times. Having at 
last satisfied himself that their mission meant 
more than a pleasure sortie into the country, 
he gained the lead once more, and when out of 
their sight rode rapidly to Lexington and 
reported his observations to Orderly Sergeant 
William Munroe. proprietor of Munroe's Tav- 
ern.* 

These ten officers riding in advance must have 
known that actual hostilities were at hand, for 
they not only detained travelers on the highway, 
but deliberately insulted a large number of the 
inhabitants along the road. Three or four of 
them, at least, went far beyond the behavior of 
military men in time of peace, for as they rode 
into Lexington, they stopped at the house of 



* In a article on the Munroe Tavern in the Proceedings of the 
Lexington Hist. Soc, III., 146, Albert W. Bryant recites a tra- 
dition that the information of ten British officers riding up the road 
was given to Sergeant Munroe, who gave the first general alarm 
that assembled Captain Parker's Company. A messenger later 
was sent down the road on a scouting trip for the British, but who 
did not return. A second was sent who did not return. A third 
was sent who also did not return. A fourth was despatched who 
did return with the news that the British Army was really march- 
ing on Lexington, and that the previous messengers who had been 
sent down the road had met and passed two or more British soldiers 
riding in advance of the main body, who then closed in on them 
as prisoners. The horse of the fourth messenger had become 
frightened at the two advancing Britons and turned back in spite 
of his rider, who caught a glimpse of the British front ranks on the 
march. [This last messenger was Captain Thaddeus Bowman, 
F. W. C.l 



36 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Matthew Mead, entered and helped themselves 
to the prepared family supper of brown bread 
and baked beans. Mrs. Mead and her daughter, 
Rhoda, were within, and Mr. Mead and two 
sons were absent. This Lexington home was at 
the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Woburn 
Street, where the Russell House now stands.* 

Quickly following Solomon Brown's message 
came a written one, directed to John Hancock, 
sent by Elbridge Gerry, one of the Committee 
of Supplies, then sitting at the Black Horse 
Tavern in Menotomy. It was practically to 
the same effect, "that eight or nine officers of the 
King's troops were seen, just before night, 
passing the road towards Lexington, in a musing, 
contemplative posture; and it was supposed 
they were out upon some evil design. "f 

Hancock at once replied to Gerry that it was 
said the officers had gone to Concord, and that 
he would send word thither. J 

But naturally it was surmised that the cap- 
ture of Hancock and Adams was intended, so a' 
guard of eight men, under Sergeant William 
Munroe, was stationed around the home of 
Rev. Jonas Clarke. About forty of the members 
of Captain Parker's Company gathered at the 
Buckman Tavern after the mounted officers 
passed through Lexington,** and it was deemed 
best that scouts should be sent out to follow 
them. Accordingly Solomon Brown, Jonathan 
Loring, and Elijah Sanderson volunteered to 
act, — and they started about 9 o'clock in the 



* Our Grandmothers of 1775, by Miss Elizabeth W. Harrington 
in Lex. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, I, 51. 
t Rev. Jonas Clarke's Narrative. 

J Life of Elbridge Gerry, by James T. Austin, page 67. 
** Dep. of Joseph Underwood. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 37 

evening.* As we have previously written, they 
were ambushed and captured at about 10 o'clock 
on the road towards Concord, in the town of 
Lincoln, by the same ones they had set out to 
follow. 

Soon after the arrival of Paul Revere between 
12 and 1 o'clock in the morning of April 19, 
with the intelligence of the starting of the King's 
troops, Captain Parker assembled his company 
on the Common. The roll was called and they 
were instructed to load with powder and ball. 
One of the messengers who had been sent to- 
wards Boston, returned and reported that he 
could not discover any troops on the way out, 
which raised some doubts as to their coming. 
It was between 1 and 2 o'clock when they were 
dismissed with instructions, however, to remain 
in the immediate neighborhood, for quick 
response to the call of the drum. Many of 
them adjourned to Buckman's Tavern, and 
the others, living in the immediate vicinity, re- 
turned to their homes. 

Between daylight and sunrise Capt. Thad- 
deus Bowman rode up, and reported that the 
regulars were near. The drum was beat, 
and Captain Parker's little band assembled on 
the Common. 

The soldiers of the King were but one hundred 
rods down the road.f 

Bedford an adjoining town to Lexington, and 
about fifteen miles from Boston, was alarmed 
on the evening of the 18th, by Nathan Munroe 
and Benjamin Tidd, both of Lexington, who 



* Sanderson having no horse was offered one by Thaddeus Har- 
rington, which he accepted. Dep. of Elijah Sanderson. 

t Dep. of William Munroe containing statement also of a British 
prisoner. 



38 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

had been sent there by Captain Parker because 
of the suspicious actions of the British officers 
on their way to Concord. Munroe and Tidd 
aroused the town, and some of the minute-men 
ralHed at the tavern kept by Nathan Fitch, Jr., 
and were there served with light refreshments. 
Captain Willson said : — 

"It is a cold breakfast, boys, but we will give 
the British a hot dinner. We'll have every 
dog of them before night."* 

The larger Bedford rally was at the oak tree 
standing in the little triangle a few rods west 
of the village, where the road to Concord 
branches away from the road to Billerica.f 

Munroe and Tidd continued their alarm to 
Meriam's Corner in Concord and returned to 
Lexington in time to hear the first alarm bell 
in the morning of the 19th, and witness the 
assembling of Capt. Parker's Company. Mun- 
roe, being a member joined the ranks, and Tidd 
remained on or near the Common and was dis- 
persed with the rest. J 

Josiah Nelson, living in the northeast part of 
Lincoln, was awakened on the night of the 
18th, by horsemen passing up the road. Rush- 
ing out partly dressed, to ascertain who they 
were, he received a blow on his head from a 
sword, cutting sufficiently to draw the blood. 
He was seized and detained a little while by his 
British captors, and when released had his 
wound dressed, and hurried to Bedford and 
gave the alarm in that town also.** 



* Brown's History of Bedford, page 24. 

t Brown's History of Bedford, page 53. 

J Deposition of Tidd and Abbot. 

♦* Brown's History of Bedford, pages 218, 219. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 39 

Billerica, seventeen miles northwest from 
Boston, probably received the alarm about two 
o'clock, and when the encounter on Lexington 
Common took place few if any families but 
had heard the call to arms.* 

Concord, seventeen miles northwesterly from 
Boston was first aroused by Dr. Samuel Prescott, 
between one and two o'clock in the morning of 
the 19th. He had just escaped from the 
British, in Lincoln, at the time they captured 
Revere. It Avas nearly three o'clock when the 
alarm bell was rung, whereupon several posts 
were despatched, who returning, brought the 
news that the regulars were indeed coming; 
that they had reached Lexington, and killed 
six Americans, and then started for Concord. f 
Capt. Minot's Company took possession of the 
hill to the eastward above the meeting house, 
and Capt. Brown's Company marched up the 
road to meet the enemy. J 

Corporal Amos Barrett of Capt. David 
Brown's Company has left a written statement 
that he thinks one hundred and fifty minute- 
men had assembled. His Company resolved 
to go up the road towards Lexington and meet 
the British. They accordingly marched a mile 
or a mile and a half, when they saw them com- 
ing. They halted and awaited them, and when 
they were within one hundred rods were ordered 
by their captain to about face. They marched 
back to the village to the music of their fife and 



* Hazen's History of Billerica, page 235. 

t Diary of Rev. Win. Emerson in R. W. Emerson's Discourse, 
and Capt. Amos Barrett's Account of the Battle in True's Journal. 

J Dep. of Capt. Nathan Barret and fifteen others of Concord, 
and Dep. of John Hoar and seven others of Lincoln, present in Con- 
cord before the arrival of the British. 



40 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

drum, the British following, also playing their 
fifes and drums.* 

Brown's Company consolidated with Minot's, 
and both took up a new position, a little farther 
north on the adjoining hill, back of the town. 
The British were so many more in number, that 
it was thought prudent to still farther retire. 
Accordingly the two companies marched down 
the hill, over the North Bridge, distance three- 
quarters of a mile from the village, and took a 
new and stronger position on Punkatasset Hill, 
a little more than a mile from the village, but 
clearly overlooking it. There they welcomed 
the reinforcements that were arriving from the 
neighboring towns. 

In Tewksbury, twenty miles northwesterly 
from Boston, the alarm was given at about 
2 o'clock in the morning. "The British are on 
their way to Concord and I have alarmed all 
the towns from Charlestown to here,"t were 
the words that aroused Capt. John Trull, from 
his slumber, who in turn fired his gun to arouse 
Gen. Varnum, across the Merrimack River 
over in Dracut, a signal previously agreed 
upon between them. When Capt. Trull reached 
the village his men were awaiting him and they 
at once started for Concord. There were two 
other Tewksbury companies commanded re- 
spectively by Capt. Jonathan Brown and Capt. 
Thomas Clark, who also responded to the 
alarm. 

In Acton, twenty-one miles northwesterly 
from Boston, and the adjoining town to Concord 
westerly, the alarm was given early in the 



* Capt. Amos Barrett's Account of the Battle, 
t Drake's Middlesex County, II, 375-6. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 41 

morning. Col. Francis F'aulkner resided in 
South Acton. His son, Francis, Jr., was lying 
awake and listening to the clatter of a horse's 
feet drawing nearer and nearer. Suddenly he 
leaped from his bed and ran to his father's room, 
adjoining, and exclaimed: 

"Father, there's a horse coming on the full 
run, and he's bringing news!" 

His father had heard the horseman also, for 
he was partly dressed with gun in hand. Across 
the bridge and up to the house came the mes- 
senger. 

"Rouse your minute-men, Mr. Faulkner, the 
British are marching on Lexington and Con- 
cord." And away he rode to spread the news. 

Col. Faulkner, without completing his dress, 
fired his gun three times as fast as he could load, 
that being the preconcerted signal. Very 
quickly a neighbor repeated it, and the boy, still 
listening, heard a repetition many times, each 
farther away. Thus was Acton aroused. 

At the home of Col. Faulkner very soon 
assembled Capt. Hunt's Company. Women 
were there, too, to help as they might. Stakes 
were driven into the lawn, kettles hung, fires 
built, and a dinner for the soldiers soon cooked. 
Some of the older boys were delighted to follow 
on and carry it in saddle-bags, separately from 
the minute-men, with instructions to take the 
field roads if the British should be found occupy- 
ing the highways. Col. Faulkner marched away 
with Capt. Hunt's Company, to take command 
of the Middlesex Regiment, which he supposed 
to be assembling at Concord. 

The hbme of Capt. Davis, was about a mile 
westerly from the meeting house in the centre 



42 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

of Acton, and about six miles from the North 
Bridge in Concord. His Company were assem- 
bling rapidly, and when about twenty had 
reported he was anxious to march. A man of 
serious mien, he seemed particularly so on the 
morning of April 19. One of his companions, 
speaking cheerily, perhaps lightly, was gently 
reproved by the brave Captain, who seemed to 
have a premonition of his own fate, and re- 
minded the other of what the day might have 
in store for them. They were about to proceed 
when he turned to his wife, as if to speak, but 
he could only say: 

"Take good care of the children."* 
Then he turned and marched away with his. 
little command. It might have been seven 
o'clock when he started,! to the lively tune of 
the "White Cockade" played by his fifer, 
Luther Blanchard, and his drummer, Francis 
Barker. 

When they reached the westerly part of 
Concord they must have learned what the 
British were doing at the home of Col. Barrett, 
for they left the highway and passed into the 
fields to the northward of the Barrett home, 
stopping for a while a little way off to watch 
the King's soldiers in their work of destruction 
of the military stores. Continuing again, they 
marched through the fields until they came out 
into the highway at Widow Brown's Tavern, J 
which was situated across the river from 
Concord village, a mile away. From there 
they proceeded by way of the Back Road, so 

* Deposition of his widow. 

t Between one and two hours after sunrise. Deposition of his 
widow. 

J Deposition of Charles Handley. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 43 

called, to the high ground now called Punka- 
tasset Hill, rising about a quarter of a mile 
to the westward of the North Bridge. 

Other companies of militia and minute- 
men were already assembled there, and Capt. 
Davis marched his men, who now numbered 
about forty, to the left of the line, a position 
that had been assigned to him at the muster 
a little while before. 

From this position on Punkatasset, they 
looked down upon the gently flowing Concord 
River; upon the old North Bridge which 
crossed just in the immediate foreground; upon 
the red-coated soldiers who stood grimly on 
guard at the nearer end; and beyond, up the 
river to Concord village, three-quarters of a 
mile away, where curling volumes of smoke 
seemed to indicate the burning of American 
homes. 

In Chelmsford, twenty-three miles north- 
westerly from Boston, the alarm was early 
given by a mounted messenger, upon which 
guns were fired and drums beat. Minute-men 
met at the Alarm-post, a rock standing where 
the hay-scales were placed in after years. 
Captain Moses Parker's Company, and Cap- 
tain Oliver Barron's Company, marched, not in 
regular order, but in squads, and came into 
Concord at Meriam's Corner and on Hardy's 
Hill in time for the pursuit. 

In Dracut, twenty-five miles from Boston, 
the alarm was given soon after two o'clock, by 
the firing of a gun by Capt. Trull across the 
Merrimac River in Tewksbury, a signal pre- 
viously agreed upon, which aroused Gen. 
Varnum. Two companies marched immediately,. 



44 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

one under Captain Peter Coburn, and the other 
under Captain Stephen Russell. They were, 
however, too remote from the scene of strife to 
meet the British, but continued their rapid 
march to Cambridge. 

Littleton, twenty-five miles from Boston, 
was alarmed in the morning by the news of the 
British march on Concord. The messenger 
then hurried over Beaver Brook Bridge, and 
into the towns beyond on his mission. 

Even in Pepperell, thirty-five miles north- 
westerly from Boston, the alarm went, reaching 
there about 9 o'clcok. Gen. Prescott gave orders 
to the Pepperell and HoUis companies, to march 
to Groton, there to join others of the regiment.* 

Roxbury, the adjoining town to Boston, 
southwesterly, was naturally the first town in 
that direction to know of the movement of the 
British. William Dawes, the first messenger 
out of Boston, as we have seen, passed through 
the town on his round-about-way to Lexingtoij, 
and must have delivered his first message there 
before 11 o'clock on the evening of the 18th. 
There were three companies under the com- 
mand of Captain Moses Whiting, Captain 
William Draper, and Captain Lemuel Child, 
respectively, who took active parts in the 
events of the 19th. As they marched for the 
scene of strife many women and children fled to 
other towns for greater safety, t 

The news reached Dedham, ten miles south- 
westerly from Boston, a little after 9 o'clock in 



* Lorenzo P. Blood in Kurd's Middlesex County, III, 231. 

t There is a tradition in the Greaton family that Mrs. Greaton 
took her younger children and such articles as she could carry in a 
cart and fled to Brookline; the older children walking beside the 
vehicle. Drake's Roxbury, 61. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 45 

the morning. It came by way of Needham and 
Dover.* 

Framingham, eighteen miles southwesterly 
from Boston, was alarmed before 8 o'clock in 
the morning. A bell was rung, and alarm guns 
fired, which assembled many of the two com- 
panies of militia and one of minute-men, who 
started in about an hour. Captain Edgell 
went on foot the entire distance, and carried his 
gun. Those living in the extreme south and 
west parts of the town followed on a little later. 
Not long after the men had left, a report was 
started that negroes were coming to massacre 
them all, which seemed the more frightful to 
the women and children because of the absence 
of about all of the able-bodied men. For those 
defenceless ones at home it was a terrible day.f 

Newton, seven miles westerly from Boston, 
was alarmed at early dawn by a volley from 
one of John Pigeon's field-guns, kept at the gun- 
house in Newton Centre, near the church. J 

Sudbury, eighteen miles westerly from Boston, 
received its first news by a messenger from 
Concord, eight miles away, who reported to 
Thomas Plympton, a member of the Provincial 
Congress. Captain Nixon was aroused by a 
messenger, who shouted : 

"Up, up! the red-coats are up as far as 
Concord." 

Captain Nixon started off at once on horse- 
back.** 

In Worcester, forty miles westerly from 



* Haven's Historical Address, page 46. 

t Rev. Josiah H. Temple, in Hurd's Middlesex County, III, 624. 
i Smith's Newton, 341. 

** Hudson's Sudbury, 374-5, and Hudson in Hurd's Middlesex 
County, II, 401. 



46 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 177S. 

Boston, the people were alarmed before noon 
by a messenger mounted on a white horse 
dripping with sweat, and bloody from spurring. 
Driving at full speed through the town he 
shouted : 

"To arms, to arms! the war has begun!" 

At the church the horse fell exhausted. 
Another was procured and the news still went 
on. The bell rang out the alarm, cannon were 
fired, and special messengers despatched to 
every part of the town to summon the soldiers. 
In a little while 110 men, under Captain 
Timothy Bigelow were paraded on the Green, 
and soon marched for Concord. They were 
met on the way by the intelligence of the 
British retreat. So they changed their course 
towards Boston.* 

It would be interesting to know the full de- 
tails of that messenger's long ride, and just 
where in the westward it ended. His ex- 
hausted horse, covered with bloody foam, falling 
in the street before the church, must have be(5n 
a spectacular sight, and one that spoke loudly 
of that terrific ride, perhaps the longest one of 
all the messengers. And we can safely imagine 
that all along his course, other messengers, 
drawing their inspiration from him, rode into 
the north, and into the south, bearing with 
them the news that he bore; and that in turn 
their words were echoed by the gun-volley, the 
clanging bell and the drum-beat. 

The reveille had now been sounded in Essex, 
in Middlesex, in Norfolk, and in Worcester 
Counties, and the minute-men were on their 
way to the battle of April 19. 



♦ Lincoln and Hersey's History of Worcester, 97. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 47 

LIEUT. COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE 
THROUGH CAMBRIDGE. 

Let us now return to the King's soldiers 
under the command of Lieut. Col. Smith, whom 
we left on the shore of Charles River at Lech- 
mere Point in Cambridge. It was one o'clock 
on the morning of the 19th, before the column 
was fully under way.* 

Lechmere Point then had but one house, 
which stood on the southern slope of the hill, 
•on the northern side of Spring Street, between 
Third and Fourth Streets, and facing to the 
south. t Where the troops landed, on Second 
Street, was sufficiently remote to be out of sight 
and hearing, evidently the particular aim of 
the commanding officer. 

They proceeded cautiously, following an old 
farm-road around the northeasterly slope of 
the hill, sometimes wading in the marshes 
that bordered Willis Creek, and fording that 
stream, waist-deep, in the vicinity of Bullard's 
Bridge. 

Smith evidently thought that the noise of 
his soldiers tramping across the bridge itself 
might attract attention. His soldiers found 
the ford a long one, and the waters deep. J 

Even thus early on the expedition was the 
British Army betrayed by one of its own 
soldiers, if the tradition handed down by a 



* A British officer in Boston in 1775 (See Atlantic Monthly, 
April, 1877). In his Diary he places the time of starting at two 
o'clock, and De Bernicre, in his report, at about two o'clock, but I 
am compelled to compute it about one o'clock considering the dis- 
tance they had to march and the well known time they arrived at 
Lexington Common, viz., almost eleven miles and reaching there 
at half past four. 

t E. C. Booth, in The Somerville Journal, April, 1875. 

X Diary of a British officer in Boston in 1775. 



48 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Mrs. Moore can be relied upon. Seventy-five 
years or more ago she related to Rev. J. L. 
Sibley, who has stated accordingly, that she 
was then living in Cambridge, a young girl, 
and that one of the soldiers was taken sick after 
his landing at Lechmere Point, and accordingly 
permitted by his commander to return by boat 
to Boston. He did not immediately return, 
however, but made his way to the solitary 
farm-house where Mrs. Moore was living. 
The occupants gained from him the significance 
of his midnight presence, and it was considered 
of sufficient importance to communicate speedily 
to their fellow townsmen. 

Bullard's Bridge crossed Willis Creek, near 
the present Prospect Street, which runs from 
Cambridge to Somerville.* Later on the Creek 
was called Miller's River. It was then a little 
tributary to the Charles River, but has long 
since been filled in, and modest dwellings, and 
more pretentious business establishments now 
cover its upper area. 

LIEUT. COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE 
THROUGH SOMERVILLE. 

The invading army emerging from Willis 
Creek were now in Somerville. They quickly 
arrived at Piper's Tavern, then standing in 
what is now Union Square. It was after two 
o'clock, but the moon was shining sufficiently 



♦The interested reader should consult the map of Boston and 
vicinity by J. F. W. Des Barres first published, May 5, 1775, and 
reprinted in Shattuck's History of Boston, and the one by Henry 
Pelham, first published in London, June 2, 1777, and reprinted in 
the Siege and Evacuation of Boston. A study of them will enable 
one to more fully understand the topography of the country about 
Boston at that time. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 49 

bright for some of the soldiers to read the sign 
aloud, which an awakened inmate heard. Up 
the present Bow Street they marched, passing 
the Choate and Frost houses, continuing along 
the present Somerville Avenue to Jonathan 
Ireland's house, at the southwest corner of the 
present School Street. None of the inhabit- 
ants just along there seem to have been dis- 
turbed. A few rods farther lived Samuel 
Tufts on the westerly side of the road near the 
present Laurel Street. He was casting bullets 
in a little hut back of his dwelling, and being 
assisted by his negro, but neither of them heard 
the tread of soldiers in the road. But yet a 
little farther along, however, at the northwest 
corner of the present Central Street lived the 
widow Rand. She was disturbed by the un- 
usual noise in the road, and came down stairs 
in her night-clothes to investigate. A hog had 
been killed for her the day before, and she 
feared a midnight thief. Upon opening the 
door she saw the soldiers, but hid behind the 
rain-water hogshead until they had passed and 
then hurried across the road to tell her neighbor 
Tufts of the unusual sight. At first he could 
not believe the story, but with his lantern's aid 
saw the many foot-prints in the road, and 
became convinced. Springing to his horse's 
back he took a short cut bridle path to Cam- 
bridge, there to spread the alarm. 

Then marched the column by Samuel Kent's 
house on the westerly side of the road, at the 
corner of the present Garden Court. Kent did 
not awake. Then by the Capen house, a little 
farther on the easterly side. No one there 
awakened. Then by the Hunnewell brothers 



[ 

50 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

on the easterly side at the turn of the road. 
They were both somewhat deaf and did not 
hear the military tread. 

The next house is the home of Timothy Tufts, 
on the easterly side of the road, nearly opposite 
Beech Street. Mrs. Tufts heard the soldiers, 
and saw from her bed the gun-barrels shining 
in the moonlight. She awakened her husband 
and they both looked out upon that red-coated 
column, as it halted long enough for some of 
the soldiers to drink at the well. 

LIEUT. COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE 
THROUGH CAMBRIDGE. 

The march was again resumed a few rods 
farther along the Milk Row road, then wheeling 
left south-westerly into Cambridge through 
what is now Beech Street, less than an eighth 
of a mile in length, then wheeling right into the 
Lexington and Concord road, towards the 
northwest.* They were then on what is now 
known as Massachusetts Avenue. 

Along this part of Battle Road in Cambridge, 
were perhaps captured the first prisoners, 
Thomas Robins and David Harrington, both 
of Lexington. Robins was carrying milk to 
Boston, and in company with Harrington when 
they reached the vicinity of Menotomy River, 
the present dividing line between Cambridge 
and Arlington. They were detained, and com- 
pelled to return to Lexington with the soldiers, 
and released at the commencement of hostilities 
on the Common. t 

• E. C. Booth in The Somerville Journal, April, 1875. 
t Francis H. Brown, M. D., in Lexington Historical Society 
Proceedings, III, 101. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 51 

LIEUT. COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE 
THROUGH ARLINGTON. 

Just after crossing the Menotomy River into 
Arlington they passed a house where Hved the 
venerable Samuel Whittemore * with his sons 
and grandchildren. Silent as was the march 
intended to be, it awoke the inmates and 
preparations for the day commenced. 

The troops soon arrived opposite to the 
Black Horse Tavern, kept by Mr. Wetherby. 
Thus far their march had not been heralded 
other than by the flashing lights and fleet and 
silent messengers. Lieut. Col. Smith still 
thought his little army unnoticed, for he rode a 
little way beyond the Tavern, halted his men, 
and sent back an officer with a file of men, to 
surround and guard the house, while others 
should search the interior for members of the 
rebel congress whom he thought to be within. 
His surmise was correct, to some extent, for three 
members were there, just awakened by the 
heavy tread, and who heard the low- voiced 
commands to halt. 

The day before, April 18, the Committee of 
Safety and the Committee of Supplies, had 
held a joint meeting at the Tavern, and there 
were present, Col. Azor Orne, Col. Joseph 
Palmer, Col. William Heath, Col. Thomas 
Gardner, Richard Devens, Abraham Watson, 
Capt. Benjamin White, and John Pigeon, of the 
Committee of Safety, and David Cheever, El- 
bridge Gerry, Col. Charles Lee, and Col. 
Benjamin Lincoln, of the Committee of Supplies. 
At the close of the meeting most of them, being 

* House still standing, (1912) and numbered 54 Massachusetts 
Avenue. 



52 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

near enough, had departed for their homes. It 
will be remembered that Richard Devens of 
Charlestown departed early enough to meet 
Revere on the Charlestown shore, and acquaint 
him with the movement of the ten British 
officers riding up the road. It will also be 
recalled that Elbridge Gerry had sent from here 
a messenger to John Hancock at Lexington to 
the same effect. 

However, there were three members of the 
two committees who chose to remain at the 
Black Horse Tavern that night. They were 
Col. Azor Orne, Elbridge Gerry, and Col. 
Charles Lee. 

It was not quite three o'clock when the 
slumbers of these three men were disturbed by 
the unusual noise in the road, and they went 
to the windows and looked out into the moon- 
light and down on the marching host and its 
gleaming arms. They watched with eager 
curiosity. Not for a moment did they connect 
themselves individually with the movement, 
but when they heard the command to halt, and 
saw a file of soldiers leave the ranks for the 
Tavern they were startled, and then it suddenly 
occurred to them that possibly they were the 
objects of those military manoeuvres. They 
hurried down stairs, even clad in their night- 
clothes as they were, and finally sought a safe 
exit at the rear. It is said that Mr. Gerry, in 
his nervous haste to escape, was on the point 
of opening the front door and rushing out that 
way, but was prevented by the cry of the 
landlord : 

"For God's sake, don't open that door," and 
who then conducted the three to the back part 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 53 

of the house, and headed them for a field of 
corn stubble. Elbridge Gerry stumbled and 
fell, and cried out to his friend: 

"Stop, Orne, for me, till I can get up; I have 
hurt myself." 

His position, fiat on the ground, out of sight 
because of the corn-stubble, suggested that it 
would be a good hiding-place for all, so the 
three lay prone on the ground until the King's 
troops passed on. They returned to the Tavern 
finally to find that the house had indeed been 
searched for them, very inefTectively, for even 
their personal efTects including Mr. Gerry's gold 
watch, left ticking under his pillow, had not been 
disturbed. The search by the soldiers had not 
been a very thorough one. 

Col. Lee never recovered from the ill efTect 
of his exposure on the damp ground in the night 
air, too thinly clad as he was, for he died within 
a month.* 

The march of the British forces under Lieut. 
Col. Smith up to this point, was a little over five 
miles, and it was nearly three o'clock. He 
continued serenely for a little farther, for un- 
known to him the inmates of many houses that 
he passed were aroused by the measured tread 
of his men. 

Solomon Bowman, Lieutenant in Captain 
Benjamin Locke's Company of Minute-men, 
lived in Menotomy, now Arlington. f He came 
to the door to witness the unusual sight. A 
soldier perceiving him, left the ranks and asked 



* Samuel A. Smith's Address at West Cambridge, page 17. 

t House still standing on the northerly side of Massachusetts 
Avenue, numbered 417, nearly opposite Whittemore Street. Arling- 
ton Past and Present. Parker, page 141. 



54 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

for a drink of water. Bowman refused the 
request, but asked him: — 

"What are you out at this time of night for?" 

The reply of the thirsty soldier was not re- 
corded, but whatever it was Bowman readily 
drew his own conclusions, and when the column 
disappeared up the road, hastened to call out 
members of his company. They formed at 
day-break on the Common.* 

But at the house across the road, with its 
chimneys painted white, the reception was more 
gracious. A tory lived there, and white chim- 
neys, it has been said, indicated the owner's 
politics, t 

The column halted again, briefly in the 
centre of the town, and Lieut. Col. Smith 
despatched forward six companies of light 
infantry under Major Pitcairn, for thfe purpose 
of earlier securing the two bridges on the roads 
just beyond Concord village. J Scarcely had he 
done so, when signal guns and alarm bells were 
heard, which indicated a general awakening to 
arms of the Provincials. Smith realized the 
full meaning of those ominous sounds, and from 
there, in Arlington village, promptly sent back 
to Gen. Gage for reinforcements. Fortunate 
for him that he did so, for otherwise the day's 
climax for his force would have been even more 
disastrous than it was. 

His marching soldiers could now hardly 
expect to pass any house unseen. A party of 
young men, playing cards, even at that late 



♦statement of Mrs. Hill, daughter of Bowman, in Smith's Ad- 
dress, page 18. 
t Smith, 18. 
t Lieut. Col. Smith's Report. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 55 

hour, in an old shop that stood near the road, 
lost their interest in the game and gave it up.* 

At the Tufts Tavern, still standing on the 
easterly side of Massachusetts Avenue, nearly 
opposite Mt. Vernon Street, the soldiers halted 
ajid some of them proceeded towards Mr. 
Tufts's barn. He was awake, and saw them, 
and suspected that their mission might be the 
confiscation of his favorite white horse. He 
called for his gun, but his prudent wife informed 
him that it had been loaned. Opening the door 
however, he addressed a British officer saying: 

"You are taking an early ride, sir!" 

"You had better go to bed and get your sleep 
while you can," replied the officer significantly. f 

At the corner of the main road and the one 
leading to Winchester, now Forest Street, "At 
the Foot of the Rocks," lived a shoemaker. A 
light glimmering through the shutters caught 
the attention of an officer, who sent a soldier to 
investigate its cause, so late in the night. The 
good wife replied that her "old man" was sick 
and she was "making some herb tea." That 
excuse satisfied the officer, for the family was 
left undisturbed. The "tea" was in fact melted 
pewter plates being run into bullets. When the 
rap first came at the door the old man took to 
his bed, and his wife emptied the molten pewter 
into the ashes, where it was readily found after 
the soldiers had passed on. J It is probable that 
ere night some of the leaden tea had hardened 

* A. R. Proctor, who heard it from William Hill and told it to 
Mr. Smith. The shop stood front of the residence occupied by 
James Schouler in 1864. Smith, West Cambridge Address, page 19. 

t Mrs. Almira T. Whittemore in Parker's Arlington, 194-5. 

t Mrs. Henry Whittemore's Statement, Smith's West Cambridge 
Address, 20. 



56 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

into leaden fruit, and was used for other than 
medicinal purposes. 

In the next house, still standing (1912) and 
numbered 1193 Massachusetts Avenue, lived 
Capt. Benjamin Locke. He looked out and 
saw the marching red-coats, and knew what 
their mission was. He lost no time in arousing 
such of his command as lived in that neighbor- 
hood. 

The British continued along the main road, 
which at that time ran up the hill westerly 
from Capt. Locke's home, and is now called 
Appleton Street, into Paul Revere Road, and 
out again into the present Massachusetts 
Avenue. At that time there was no highway 
between the extreme ends of these two. 

Through the rest of Arlington the march was 
uneventful, save the capture of the scouts 
sent out from Lexington, who were so neatly 
ambushed and taken. As we have seen, they 
were permitted to come down the road passing 
a few soldiers who were out in advance, and 
who secreted themselves when an approaching 
horseman was heard. After the unfortunate 
scout had passed into the stretch of road 
bounded by the advance guard and the main 
body he was not permitted to return to Lexing- 
ton. 

Two men from Woburn, Asahel Porter and 
Josiah Richardson, w^ere thus captured. It has 
been stated that they were on their way to the 
Boston market. If they lived in that part of 
Woburn which adjoins Lexington, then their 
natural journey would have been into Lexington, 
and thence through Arlington and Cambridge. 
But it may be that they were scouting simply, 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 57 

for they were on horseback, and therefore with- 
out any apparent market business. They were 
compelled to dismount, their horses taken, 
and then forced to walk along as prisoners. 
Reaching the Common in Lexington they were 
both released by their kindly disposed guard, 
with the particular understanding that they were 
to walk, not run, away. Richardson accepted 
those conditions, carried them out and so 
escaped. But Porter, once over Rufus Mer- 
riam's garden-wall, twenty rods away from his 
captors, started into a run. Some other soldier 
than his guard saw him, and evidently thinking 
that a prisoner was escaping, promptly shot him 
through the body. Those captures were prob- 
ably made in Arlington, and not far from the 
Lexington boundary line. 

LIEUT. COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE 
THROUGH LEXINGTON. 

It must have been just over the line into 
Lexington that the young man, Simon Winship, 
was met. He was on horseback, unarmed, and 
passing along in a peaceable manner, when he 
was halted and ordered to dismount. He 
questioned their right to treat him in that 
manner, but for answer they forced him from 
his horse and compelled him to march on foot in 
their midst. They asked him if he had been 
out warning the minute-men, to which he 
replied that he had not, but that he was return- 
ing home to his father's. He was kept as a 
prisoner until they arrived at Lexington Com- 
mon, two and one-half miles, where he was 
compelled to witness the shooting of his fellow 
townsmen. 



58 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Half a mile farther along, and about two miles 
from Lexington Common, Benjamin Wellington, 
one of Capt. Parker's Company of minute-men, 
was captured. This took place very nearly at 
the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleas- 
ant Street. Wellington was armed and on his 
way from home on Pleasant Street to join his 
company. Thus it is claimed, and rightly, that 
he was the first belligerent or armed man cap- 
tured by the British. But for some reason he- 
was allowed to depart, not towards the Common, 
but for home. His gun was not returned to 
him, however. He started towards home but 
when out of their sight, turned and passed 
northerly along the crest of the hills, parallel to 
the highway, and reached the Common just 
after Thaddeus Bowman, but ahead of the 
British. 



THE OPENING BATTLE ON LEXINGTON 
COMMON. 

The six companies of light infantry under 
command of Major Pitcairn were now consider- 
ably in advance of the main body under Smith, 
and up the road somewhat farther than the- 
present high school building, even farther along 
than where the Woburn road, now Woburn 
Street, turns off to the eastward. When stilt 
nearer Lexington Common, within about one 
hundred rods of it, they heard the beating of a 
drum by William Dimond, drummer in Captain 
Parker's Company. It was the summons for 
that little band to assemble across the pathway 
of an invading army. Major Pitcairn accepted 
it as a challenge, and promptly ordered his 







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€0 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

soldiers to halt and load their muskets, * and 
then to march on the double quick for Lexington 
Common. t 

Captain John Parker's company numbered, 
all told, one hundred and twenty men, but 
only a few more than half answered to this call 
at day-break, April 19. It will be remembered 
that Paul Revere did not reach Lexington with 
his message of alarm until midnight. Many 
of the minute-men lived too remote to be so 
quickly summoned. Captain Parker's home 
was over two miles away, in the southwesterly 
part of the town, near the Waltham line. He 
was called at about one o'clock, J and stood 
on the Common before two o'clock with such 
of his men as had then assembled. We have 
seen how they answered the roll-call and then 
dispersed to be within call of the drum, as the 
night was chilly. Those who lived near, went 
home, and those who lived too far away, to 
quickly go and come, repaired to Buckman's 
Tavern, close at hand. 

Captain Parker has been described by his 
grandson, Theodore Parker, the celebrated 
Unitarian preacher, as being "a great, tall man, 
with a large head, and a high, wide brow." 
His great grand-daughter, Elizabeth S. Parker, 
has described him as stout, large-framed, 
medium height, like Rev. Theodore Parker, 
but with a longer face.** We can imagine him 
as a prudent man, with a quiet, yet firm courage. 

* Deposition of Wm. Munroe who state3 that he saw about two 
hundred cartridge ends dropped by the soldiers when loading. 

t Deposition of William Munroe, reciting a statement to him by 
a British prisoner. 

X Deposition of Captain John Parker. 

** Article by Elizabeth S. Parker in Lexington Historical Society, 
I, 47. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 61 

Two men from Woburn had just arrived, and 
it was then a little before five o'clock. They 
were Sylvanus Wood and Robert Douglass. 
They had come about three miles, having heard, 
about an hour before, the ringing of the bell in 
the Old Belfry, which stood near the church on 
the Common. As Wood came up he approached 
Captain Parker and inquired the news. Parker 
replied that he did not know what to believe, 
for, half an hour before, a messenger had re- 
turned with the assurance that no British were 
on the way. While talking, another messenger, 
Thaddeus Bowman, rode up with the startling 
announcement that the British were within 
half a mile. They were nearer than that — 
not even down the road as far as Woburn Street. 

Captain Parker then ordered his drummer, 
William Dimond * to beat to arms. The 
minute-men assembled from their homes and 
from the Buckman Tavern. They were but 
few, so few indeed, that he turned to Wood 
and begged him to join their ranks. Wood 
consented. Parker asked him if his young com- 
panion, meaning Robert Douglass, would also 
join. And Douglass also enlisted into Captain 
Parker's Company. These two were indeed 
brave, for the danger was really then and there. 

The minute-men gathered around their cap- 
tain in the middle of the road, about half way 
between the meeting-house and the tavern. 
The meeting-house then stood where the 



* "William Dimond. Died July 29. 1828. Aged 73." In- 
scription on his gravestone in Peterboro, N. H. See article in 
the Boston Globe, Sept. 23, 1903, speaking of him at length as the 
drummer in Capt. Parker's Company. See also the deposition of 
Sylvanus Wood who called him William Dimon. See also list of 
Capt. Parker's Company in Boutwell's Oration at Acton. 



62 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

heroic statue of a minute-man in bronze now 
stands. The tavern is still standing (1912). 

Parker then said : 

"Every man of you who is equipped, follow 
me; and those of you who are not equipped, go 
into the meeting-house and furnish yourselves 
from the magazine, and immediately join the 
company."* Joseph Comee, Caleb Harrington 
and Joshua Simonds then went into the meeting- 
house, to comply with the Captain's command. 

Then Parker led those who were equipped, 
to the northerly end of the Common, where 
they formed in single line. Sylvanus Wood 
stepped from the ranks long enough to count 
them, and has left his sworn statement that 
there were thirty-eight, "and no more."t 

In the brief moments which followed others 
were hastening to join the ranks, and as they 
arrived Orderly Sergeant William Munroe 
attempted to form them into a second line, and 
partially succeeded. J Even later still a few 
more reached the Common, and were back to 
the British as they wheeled grandly around 
the easterly end of the meeting-house and at 
last stood on Lexington Common.** Captain 
Parker's entire force then numbered between 
sixty and seventy men, ft ununiformed, scantily 
armed, poorly disciplined, pitifully few as com- 
pared with the three or four hundred of the 
British. 



* Deposition of Sylvanus Wood. 

t Deposition of Sylvanus Wood. 

t Deposition of William Munroe. 

*♦ Depositions of Nathaniel Parkhurst and thirteen others, and 
of Nathaniel Mulliken and thirty-three others. 

tt Depositions of John Munroe, of Ebenezer Munroe, and of 
William Tidd. Also of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, of the 
Fourth or King's Own Regiment, taken prisoner at Concord. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 63 

It is no wonder that one minute-man ex- 
claimed: 

"There are so few of us it is foUv to stand 
here." 

Captain Parker heard the remark, and 
answered : 

"The first man who offers to run shall be shot 
down."* 

On came the British, almost on the run.f 
the light companies of the Tenth Regiment in 
advance. J At their head rode Major John 
Pitcairn and two other mounted officers.** 

"Stand your ground," exclaimed Parker; 
"don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want 
to have a war let it begin here!"tt 

Major Pitcairn galloped up to within six 
rods of Captain Parker's foremost line, and 
exclaimed : 

"Lay down your arms, you damned rebels, 
and disperse." 

Captain Parker, seeing the utter hopelessness 
of armed resistance, gave the order to disperse 
and not to fire.Jf He did not, however, order 
his men to lay down their arms. Evidently 
Pitcairn wished to disarm them, for while they 
were dispersing he shouted again : — 



* Depositions of Robert Douglass and of Joseph Underwood. 

t Deposition of William Draper. 

} Historical Memoirs of the 52nd Regiment copied in Evelyn's 
Memoirs, pages 56-7. 

** Depositions of Thomas Fessenden and of John Robbins. 

tt When this scene was re-enacted in 1822, William Munroe; 
Orderly Sergeant under Parker that morning, repeated the words 
of Captain Parker as above quoted, and added: "Them are the 
very words that Captain Parker said." Report of the Committed 
on Historical Monuments and Tablets, 1884. Paul Revere heard 
■Captain Parker say: "Let the troops pass by and don't molest them 
without they begin first." See Revere's Narrative. 

J J Deposition of Captain John Parker. 



64 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775 

"Damn you, why don't you lay down your 
arms?* 

But no answer came back, and each one of 
Capt. Parker's little band retiring from the field, 
carried his gun with him. 

Then one of the other mounted officers, about 
two rods behind Pitcairn, name unknown, 
brandished his sword and the regulars huzzaed 
in unison. He then pointed his pistol towards 
the minute-men and fired. f 

Pitcairn was back to that officer, so did not 
see him fire. He heard the discharge, and 
easily might have mistaken it as coming from 
an enemy, for he had not authorized it himself. J 
Furious with passion he gave the order: 

"Fire!" 

There was hesitation to obey from his men, 
for he repeated: 

"Fire, damn you, fire!"** 

The first platoon of eight or nine men then 
fired, evidently over the heads of the minute- 
men, for none were killed or wounded. ft 
Pitcairn saw the effects of that volley and 
realized that his men did not aim to kill. Then 
came his next order: 



* Rev. Jonas Clarke. 

t Deposition of Thomas Fessenden. 

i The English contention is that the Americans fired first. See 
letter of W. S. Evelyn, who was with Percy; De Bernicre's Ac- 
count, and Lieut. Col. Smith's Report. It seems to me of but little 
moment as to who fired first. The council of war, convened by 
Gen. Gage, April 18, wherein it was determined to march out and 
destroy the public stores of Massachusetts was the first real hostile 
act and could only lead to war. Major Pitcairn has denied that he 
authorized that first shot. I believe him to have been gruff and 
profane, but honest, brave, and faithful to his King. He died 
from wounds received in the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

♦♦Depositions of William Draper; of William Munroe; of Simon 
Winship ; of John Munroe; and of John Bateman, a British soldier. 

tt Deposition of William Wood. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 55 

"G — — d d n you, fire at them!"* 

The second volley surely was fired to kill. 
John Munroe, one of the minute-men in line, 
thought that the first volley was nothing but 
powder and so remarked to Ebenezer Munroe, 
who stood next to him. But as the second 
volley came quickly and with fatal efifect, the 
latter answered that something more than 
powder was being used for he had received a 
wound in his arm, and, he added: 

"I'll give them the guts of my gun."t 
These two Munroes then deliberately fired 
at the British, though the smoke from the 
latter 's guns prevented a deliberate and careful 
aim. J John Munroe, after retreating about 
ten rods, loaded a second time, with two balls, 
and fired, but the charge was too heavy, and 
he lost about a foot from the muzzle end of his 
gun.** 

Jonas Parker, cousin to the Captain, was 
mortally wounded through the body,tt from 
the second volley, but having sufficient strength, 
fired in return. He had but just uttered his 
determination not to run, and had placed his 
hat on the ground at his feet, and in it put his 
bullets and extra flints. The British bullet in 
his body caused him to sink to his knees, but he 
heroically endeavored to reload. He could not, 
before the advancing enemy were upon him. 



* MSS. narrative of Levi Harrington, a youthful spectator. 

t Deposition of John Munroe. 

J Deposition of John Munroe. 

** MSS. narrative of Levi Harrington, and Deposition of Jolin 
Munroe. 

tt MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington. 



66 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

and one of them ended his sufferings with a 
bayonet thrust.* 

Jonathan Harrington, Jr., was mortally 
wounded, but staggered towards his home, on 
the northerly end of the Common. He fell 
before reaching there, struggled to his feet again, 
and staggered almost to his own door, where 
he expired, just as his wife rushed to meet him. 
He fell near the barn, then standing in what is 
now Bedford Street. f 

Ensign Robert Munroe was killed while 
attempting to escape. He was just at the 
edge of the Common, by the wall at Merriam's 
barn.J His daughter, Anna, wife of Daniel 
Harrington, who lived at the northerly end of 
the Common, must have seen the tragedy, as 
must also his two sons, Ebenezer and John, 
and his two sons-in-law, Daniel Harrington and 
Lieut. Tidd, all four in line with Captain 
Parker. 

When Parker directed such of his force as 
were without ammunition to proceed into the 
meeting-house near by, and supply themselves 
from the town's stock, as we have written, 
Joseph Comee, Caleb Harrington and Joshua 
Simonds entered the sacred edifice for that 
purpose. Simonds succeeded in getting down 
from the upper loft to the first balcony, two 
quarter casks of powder, and had removed the 
head from one.** The opening volley, but a 
few rods away, indicated to him that hostilities 
had commenced. He expected to meet his 



* Deposition of William Munroe. 

t MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington. 

t IvISS. Narrative of Levi Harrington. 

** Phinney's History of the Battle of Lexington. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 67 

fate. Pointing his gun to the open cask he 
resolved to blow up the meeting-house, himself 
and his enemies, rather than to have them 
enter and capture him.* Comee and Harring- 
ton attempted to escape, and were running 
from the westerly end of the meeting-house, 
when the former was shot and instantly killed, f 
and the latter wounded in the arm. He made 
his way to the Marrett Munroe house, passed 
through it and out of the back door, and es- 
caped over the hill at the rear. 

Then with savage ferocity the British rushed 
on, hunting down the fleeing minute-men, as 
they attempted to escape in all directions. 
A mounted officer, supposed to be Pitcairn, 
pursued WiUiam Tidd up the North road (now 
Hancock Street), about thirty rods, caUing out 
to him: 

"Damn you, stop, or you are a dead man!" 

Thereupon Tidd leaped over a pair of bars, 
made a stand and discharged his gun at his 
pursuer, who then retreated to the main body. J 

Solomon Brown was not idle. Though not 
in line with Captain Parker's men, he was an 
active participant. After their second volley, 
he opened fire from the back door of Buckman's 
Tavern, and then in order to get a better 
shot, passed through to the front door, and 
fired from there. The British retaliated with 
a return volley, and the bullet holes in the old 
building still vouch for it. John Buckman, 
the landlord, remonstrated with Brown, against 
having his house used as a fort, so the latter 



* Deposition of Ebenezer Munroe. 
t MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington. 
t Deposition of William Tidd. 



68 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

took a new position, lying down behind a 
neighboring stone wall back of the barn, and 
opened fire again.* The British again re- 
sponded. Their leaden bullets spattered against 
the wall and from their impact little clouds of 
stone dust like smoke, told a witness where 
they struck. t Brown's aim was at an officer, 
and group of soldiers, and subsequently Abijab 
Harrington saw a pool of blood on the ground 
where they stood. J 

John Brown and Samuel Hadley were killed 
on the edge of the swamp, a little way to the 
north of the Common. They were retreating, 
but not beyond the reach of their pursuers*^ 
bullets.** 

Asahel Porter, unarmed, non-combatant, and 
who had been brought up from Menotomy with 
Josiah Richardson as prisoners, was killed a few 
rods over the wall in Buckman's garden, to the 
eastward of the Tavern. He had been liberated 
with other prisoners, and had been cautioned 
not to run, but walk away. After walking a 
little distance he felt impelled to run, and was 
pursued by a British bullet, with fatal effect. 
Richardson walked away, and safely escaped. 

* Miss Mary Merriam, ninety years of age in 1887, reported to. 
Edward P. Bliss, that she had heard her father say (and he was 
thirteen years old when the battle took place) that on that morn- 
ing some who would not stand up for their country believed the 
British would not fire on them. They were at the Tavern. The 
British fired on them, however, and they promptly retreated to- 
the cellar and attic. Edward P. Bliss in Lexington Hist. Society 
Proceedings, I, 71. 

t Depositions of William Munroe, minute-man, and of Elijah 
Sanderson, spectator. Also statement of Rufus Merriam, specta- 
tor, then in his thirteenth year, to Rev. A. B. Muzzey. Young 
Merriam overheard Buckman's remonstrance. Muzzey's Battle of 
Lexington, page 6. MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington. 

t MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington; Deposition of Abijah 
Harrington. 

**MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington, who, however, erroneously 
names them John Parker and Isaac Hadley. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 69 

The work of the British on Lexington Com- 
mon, occupying less than half an hour, was 
now finished. Their casualties were slight, one 
man of the Tenth Regiment wounded in the 
thigh, another in the hand, and Major Pit- 
cairn's horse shot in two places.* The killing 
of the minute-men, had, however, wrought the 
rank and file up to a frenzied pitch of excite- 
ment, so much so, that the officers had difficulty 
in forming them into line again, f They 
succeeded though. In the meantime the main 
body under Lieut. Col. Smith arrived, and 
when they were all in marching order a volley 
was fired, and huzzas shouted as an expression 
of victory, and then they proceeded on their 
way. J Just then the sun rose on this new field 
of battle.** 

Again the fife and drum, at first harsh and 
loud, echoing against the neighboring hills; 
then fainter and fainter, as the troops marched 
up and over the summit of Concord Hill, a mile 
away. 

And when they were indeed gone, the men 
and women and children of Lexington came 
forth from their hiding places and looked upon 
the scene. We of today, have never seen our 
Common as they saw it, its turf torn with 
horses' hoofs, and clotted here and there with 
liuman blood; with prostrate figures of men, 
some with faces upward to the sky, others 



*A British officer in Boston in 1775. De Bernicre's Account, 
Report of Lieut. -Col. Smith, Statement of a British Prisoner as 
recited in Ebenezer Munroe's Deposition. 

t A British Officer in Boston in 1775. 

t Rev. Jonas Clarke, an eye-witness of this incident. 

**At 5.19 A. M. Astronomical Diary and Almanack for 1775, 
by Nathaniel Low. 



70 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

with theirs smothered helplessly in the dust. 
One might almost think they were asleep. 

Such was the fulfilment of their solemn 
pledge, that they stood ready to sacrifice 
"everything dear in life, yea and life itself, in 
support of the common cause.''* 

Strong and willing arms then bore all of 
those precious dead into the house of God. 
And we can imagine, as they came forth, that 
their faces were turned towards Concord Hill, 
shining with a patriot's full meaning. We can 
go with them through the day, as they join the 
men of Acton ; of Concord ; — men from all 
over Middlesex, and Essex, and Norfolk Coun- 
ties, who also stood so ready to defend the 
common cause, yea, even with life itself! 

The dead on or near Lexington Common were 
Jonas Parker, Jonathan Harrington, Jr., Ensign 
Robert Munroe, Isaac Muzzy, John Brown, 
Samuel Hadley, Caleb Harrington, and Asahel 
Porter. The wounded were John Robbins, so 
that he could not write his name or even make 
his mark;t Solomon Pierce; John Tidd, sabre 
cut on his head by a British officer; J Joseph 
Comee, on his arm;J Ebenezer Munroe, Jr., on 
his arm; **Thomas Winship; Nathaniel Farmer; 
Prince Estabrook (colored) and Jedediah Mun- 
roe (who was killed later in the day). 

Hardly had the soldiers of King George 
reached the summit of Concord Hill, a mile 
away, ere stragglers, wearing the same uniform, 
were seen coming up the road, apparently 



* From a patriotic resolution passed in Town Meeting in De- 
cember, 1773. Hudson's History of Lexington, page 92. 
t His deposition April 24, 1775. 
J MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington. 
** His deposition. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 71 

without fear or guile. There were five in all, 
but as they came singly or in twos, were not 
looked upon as dangerous belligerents. Joshua 
Simonds emerging from the meeting-house, 
captured the first one, took his gun away, and 
gave it to Captain Parker.* Deacon Benjamin 
Brown captured one.f Joshua Reed, of Wo- 
burn, captured one, took away his gun and 
other warlike equipments and turned him over 
to James Reed of Burlington, J then called 
Woburn Precinct. Two more were taken on 
or near the Common, and their arms, or those 
of two Britons at all events, carried into Buck- 
man Tavern by Ebenezer Munroe, later given 
to minute-men, who had none of their own.** 

Another prisoner, the sixth, was captured by 
Sylvanus Wood of Woburn, the man who 
joined Captain Parker's Company, and stood 
in line to receive the first volley, as the British 
marched into sight. When they marched away 
he followed on, up over Concord and Fiske Hills. 
Arriving at a turn in the road, beyond the latter, 
he came unexpectedly upon a soldier who for 
some good reason had dropped out of the ranks. 
He was seated at the roadside, and his gun 
leaned at rest beyond his reach. Wood was a 
little man, about five feet tall, but large in 
valor. So he demanded the surrender of his 
enemy. Helpless as he was he could only 
comply, and Wood marched him back to 



* This gun descended to his grandson, Rev. Theodore Parker, 
who gave it to the State of Massachusetts. Bradford Smith in 
Lexington Hist. Soc. Proceedings, II, 145. 

t Deposition of Abijah Harrington. 

J Deposition of James Reed. 

** Deposition of Ebenezer Munroe. 



72 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Lexington Common and placed him in the 
charge of a Mr. Welsh.* 

This prisoner also was captured in Lex- 
ington, at the bluff near the Bull Tavern, later 
kept by Mr. Viles. It stood not far from the 
Lincoln line. He and four of the others taken 
on Lexington Common were escorted to James 
Reed's in Burlington by Thomas R. Willard, 
William Munroe, and E. Welsh. f 

LIEUT. COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE 
THROUGH LINCOLN. 

The march of the British from Lexington 
Common to the Lincoln line and thence through 
the Town of Lincoln and into Concord to 
Meriam's Corner, a distance of a little over 
five miles, was without unusual incidents. 
That part of Lincoln through which they passed 
is the edge of the town, and then, as now, but 
sparsely settled. The village of Lincoln is con- 
siderably to the westward, fortunately, and 
thus most of the inhabitants were too remote 
for insult or more serious trouble. The men of 
Lincoln, however, were not unmindful of the 
enemy's movements, as we shall see later on. 
In the woods that bordered the highway, the 
British saw some of them, f but not in suflficient 
number evidently to oppose their advance. 



* Mt. Vernon Papers by Edward Everett, page 430. Everett, 
a member of Congress in 1826, secured a pension of $96 per year 
for Wood. Once, when the latter was in Washington he intro- 
duced him to President Jackson. See also the History of Woburn, 
by Sewall, who received his information from Wood's son. Also 
see the deposition of Wood. 

t Deposition of E. Welsh. 

t Deposition of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, a British 
prisoner. 



--«ii 




THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 73 

LIEUT. COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE 
INTO CONCORD. 

From Meriam's Corner in Concord to the 
centre of Concord village is about a mile and a 
quarter. From the Corner and on the northerly 
side of the road, commences a line of hills 
rising fully sixty feet,* or more above the road, 
which skirts along their edges, and perhaps an 
eighth of mile from, and parallel to, their sum- 
mits. The ridge commands very easily 
and nicely the road, for the entire distance, 
and was looked upon by both sides as a desirable 
place to occupy. Captain Nathan Barrett and 
his company of Concord militia had occupied 
that part of it near the meeting-house from 
about an hour after sunrise, for they had re- 
ceived the intelligence of the killing of six 
Americans at Lexington. f Capt. George Minot 
and his company of minute-men, assembled 
there also. J Farther along the ridge, towards 
Meriam's Corner, other Americans had taken 
position,** probably as individuals. It was 
about two hours after sunrise when the enemy 
came into sight.ft 

As Lieut. Col. Smith came into view of this 
location he saw the body of provincials along 
the ridge, and quickly decided to dislodge them. 
The light infantry were ordered to that work, 
and they succeeded in forcing the Americans 
back to the village. The grenadiers continued 
along the road, driving before them there, 

* U. S. Geological Survey, 1886. 

t Deposition of Capt. Nathan Barrett and fifteen others, all of 
Concord. 

t Diary of Rev. William Emerson. 

** Deposition of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, British. 

tt Deposition of Capt. Nathan Barrett and fifteen others. 



74 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Captain David Brown's Company of Concord 
minute-men, who had marched up from the 
village as far as Meriam's Corner, on a scouting 
trip. When the British were seen descending 
from the hills of Lincoln, they halted, and when 
the enemy came within about one hundred rods, 
wheeled about and marched back to the village, 
the fifes and drums of both forces playing.''' 

On the hill not far from the village stood the 
Liberty Pole, from the summit of which some 
kind of a flag was flying. The British cut it 
down.f 

It was between seven and eight o'clock, when 
the enemy reached Concord village. J The 
march from Lexington must have been a steady 
one, without interruption. The distance is 
about six and a quarter miles and the elapsed 
time about two hours. The entire distance 
from Lechmere Point is about seventeen miles, 
sufficiently long, even thus far, to weary many 
of the soldiers. Add to the length of the 
march, their loss of sleep, before starting, and 
the excitement on Lexington Common, it is 
easy to imagine that a few halts for rest were 
allowed, though an anxiety to accomplish their 
errand would not have permitted of unnecessary 
delays. 

Their advance into Concord village compelled 
the Americans to move along to an adjoining 
hill just to the northward, which they subse- 



* Capt. Amos Barrett's Account, who was then present as a 
member of Brown's Company. 

t A British Officer in Boston in 1775. 

i De Bernicre, the British authority who was present, states 
the time as being between nine and ten o'clock, but I follow Captain 
Barrett and fifteen others who state in their deposition that it 
was about two hours after sunrise. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 75 

quently abandoned, and marched still farther 
along, passing over the North Bridge and 
taking a stronger position on Punkatasset Hill 
whose summit is fully two hundred feet * 
higher than Concord River, and perhaps half a 
mile from the bridge, and rather more than a 
mile from the village itself. It was their third 
position, and then about eight o'clock in the 
morning, t 

Reaching Concord village Lieut.-Col. Smith 
proceeded at once to carry out the plan of his 
expedition, viz., the destruction of the military 
stores. Ensign De Bernicre acted as guide to 
where they could be found, for he had been one 
of the spies sent out by Gen. Gage for the 
express purpose of locating them. 

Smith found but few people in the village, for 
the able-bodied men were with their companies, 
and many of the non-combatants had considered 
other places more secure. Some, however, 
remained, and the British officers labored to 
convince them that no bodily harm was 
intended. 

Pitcairn was especially active in that diplo- 
matic work, but insisting all the time that their 
doors must be unlocked that the soldiers might 
search their premises. Many would not sub- 
mit peaceably to such an indignity, and one of 
those old men of Concord, had the courage to 
strike Major John Pitcairn in the presence of 
the King's soldiers. J We can imagine this 
incident happened before that doughty officer 
entered Wright's Tavern, and called for liquor, 



* U. S. Geological Survey, 1886. 

t Frederic Hudson in Harper's Magazine, May, 1875. 

t Lieut.-Col. Smith's report. 



76 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

into which he phmged his finger to stir the 
sweetening. Some of the precious fluid slopped 
over, which he Ukened to the way Yankee 
blood should spill ere nightfall, a remark 
possibly inspired by his over-wrought feelings 
at the affront. 

Captain Lawrence Parsons of the Tenth Regi- 
ment, with six light companies, was immediately 
despatched for the North Bridge, distance three 
quarters of a mile. There he left Capt. Walter 
Sloane Lawrie of the Forty-third Regiment, 
with three of the companies for guard duty, 
while he proceeded with the other three com- 
panies, guided by Ensign De Bernicre over the 
bridge and up the left bank of the Concord 
River and its northerly branch, the Assabet 
River, to the home of Colonel Barrett,* almost 
two miles from the bridge, f 

Capt. Lawrie, arriving near the bridge, 
assigned one company of the Forty-third Regi- 
ment to the bridge itself, one of the Tenth 
Regiment, to a nearby hill, and one of the 
Fourth or King's Own Regiment to another 
hill a quarter of a mile farther away.J so 
arranged as to be within supporting distance of 
each other.** 

After the six companies under Parsons had 
departed Lieut. -Col. Smith sent Capt. Mundy 
Pole of the Tenth Regiment with a force, 
towards the South Bridge, incidentally for 
guard duty there, and in particular to destroy 



* De Bernicre and Editor's Note to Diary of a British Officer, 
t l|a miles, to be exact. 

t Editor's Note in A British Officer in Boston in 1775, and Dep- 
osition of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, British officer present. 
** De Bernicre. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 77 

such military stores as they might find.* The 
distance from the village to the bridge is almost 
a mile.f They went a little beyond, to the 
homes of Amos and Ephraim Wood, and in the 
vicinity of Lee's Hill. J 

Within the village the British were very 
active in their search for the military supplies. 
Public buildings, stores, and private dwellings 
were alike examined. At the malt house of 
Ebenezer Hubbard a considerable quantity of 
flour was discovered, and the end boards of the 
building were pulled off, that the barrels might 
the easier and faster be rolled out into the 
road, where they were broken open, and the 
contents mixed with the dust.** At the store 
house of Timothy Wheeler, another lot of flour 
was found, which the miller, by a little artifice, 
saved. It was indeed public property, but 
Wheeler, placing his hand upon the bags of 
meal, one after another, and which stood with 
the flour, assured the soldiers that he was a 
miller, and that they were his. 

They were considerate enough to spare his 
personal property, and included the flour.ft 

At the neighboring grist-mill several barrels 
were seized, and rolled to or into the mill pond, 
but part was subsequently saved, as it hardly 
reached the water. }J 



* De Bernicre. 

t II mile to be exact. 

J Frederic Hudson, in Harper's Magazine, May, 1875. 

** Ripley, Rev. Ezra. History of the Fight at Concord. 

tt Ripley. 

% t The old mill-pond occupied a goodly portion of the land bounded 
by Lexington Road, Heywood, Walden, and Main Streets, the 
northerly corner almost reaching Wright's Tavern. Subsequently 
it was filled in and now stores and dwellings occupy its entire area 



78 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Deacon Thomas Barrett, brother of Colonel 
Barrett, was a resident of the \allage. He was 
an aged man, and remained quietly in or near 
his home while the soldiers were busy in looting 
and destroying. He was a man of gentle 
demeanor, and unarmed, but they seized him, 
called him rebel, and even threatened to take 
his life. He pleaded with them to dispense with 
that trouble, for his extreme age meant that he 
should soon die anyway. They permitted him 
to go in peace. In his building was a gun- 
factory carried on by his son, Samuel Barrett.* 



BATTLE AT NORTH BRIDGE IN CON- 
CORD. 

In the meantime large numbers of Americans 
were gathering on the hills to the northward 
beyond the river. The commander of the 
British at the North Bridge and vicinity was not 
unmindful of that, and deemed it wise to con- 
centrate his little army of three companies at 
the bridge itself, as that seemed to be the 
threatened point of attack. Consequently the 
two remoter companies were marched down 
from the hills and joined the third, and then all 
three marched to the easterly or nearer end of 
the bridge. 

About a quarter of a mile beyond the North 
Bridge, and in a westerly direction from it, is 
a little hill about forty feet higher than the 
river, t To reach it by road from the bridge 
meant traveling over two sides of an irregular 



* Ripley. 

t U. S. Geological Survey, 1886. 




n o OS 



80 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

triangle, and going nearly half a mile.* The 
crest of the elevation commands a beautiful 
view up and down the river, with the North 
Bridge in the middle foreground, and the 
village nearly a mile away to the southward. 

The Americans moved forward from Punka- 
tasset Hill to this, their fourth position, at about 
nine o'clock, as their reinforcements had aug- 
mented sufficiently to induce a growing feeling 
of aggressiveness. Here were assembling the 
sturdy men of Concord and of Acton ; of Bedford, 
Lincoln, and Carlisle, and of other neighboring 
towns. Joseph Hosmer acted as Adjutant, 
forming the soldiers as they arrived, the minute 
companies on the right and the militia on the 
left, facing the bridge. f 

Col. James Barrett summoned his subordi- 
nate officers for a council of war, the first one of 
the American Revolution, and while they were 
so engaged. Captain Isaac Davis and' his 
company of minute-men from Acton arrived, 
and marched to a position on the left of the line' 
as they had been accustomed to on training- 
days. After halting his little command, Capt. 
Davis joined his brother officers in their council 
of war. 

There were then assembled on that little hill, 
four Concord companies, commanded respec- 
tively by Capt. David Brown, fifty-two men; 
Capt. Charles Miles, fifty-two men; Capt. 
George Minot, number of men unknown; and 
Capt. Nathan Barrett, number of men also 
unknown. From Acton there were three com- 

.i.*?'?5 '^°^^ forming one side of the triangle, and leading from 
the bridge, has been discontinued and now appears only as a Dart 
of the river meadow. 

t Lemuel Shattuck as quoted by Josiah Adams, page 27. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. g^ 

panics, one under Capt. Isaac Davis, thirty- 
eight men; one under Capt. Joseph Robins, 
number of men unknown; and one under Capt' 
Simon Hunt,* number of men also unknown" 
There were two companies from Bedford one 
being under Capt. John Moore, fifty-one men- 
and the other under Capt. Jonathan Willson' 
twenty-eight men. A little later Captain Will- 
son was killed and his command fell to Lieut 
Moses Abbott. Lincoln was represented by 
Capt. VVilliam Smith with sixty-two men.f 
In addition to these regular organized sol- 
diers, there were many individuals present 
who undoubtedly took a patriotic part in the 
subsequent events, and easily constituted the 
American force as one of at least four hundred 
and ninety. 

These men looked down on the hostile troops 
at the Bridge, and beyond the river to the 
village, where huge volumes of smoke were 
rising from the bonfires of military stores 
These seemed to them as the burning of their 
homes. Inspired by that fear, and by their 
knowledge of the bloodshed at Lexington, they 
were ready to follow where their officers should 
lead. Their council could only decide in one 
way: 

'To march into the middle of the town for its 
defence, or die in the attempts % 

Col. Barrett then gave the order to Major 
John Buttrick to lead an advance over the 
Bridge a nd to the centre of the town. And his 

* statement of Aaron Jones, a member, in Adams's Address, page21. 
t Affidavit of Amos Baker, a member. 

t Survivors testified that both Major Buttrick and Caot Davis 
used these words. See Ripley's History of the Concord F^ght 



82 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

instructions were like those of Captain Parker 
a few hours before, not to fire unless fired upon. 

It was then between nine and ten o'clock.* 
Col. Barrett retired to the rear on higher 
ground, t and xMajor Buttrick hastened to 
execute his order. His choice for a company 
to lead was naturally one from Concord, but 
the Captain of that one replied that he would 
rather not. J We wonder at the reason, for 
Concord seemed to be the most deeply con- 
cerned just at that hour. However, it could 
not have been for lack of courage, for the 
Concord companies were a part of that advance. 
Then Buttrick turned to Capt. Davis, and 
asked him if he was afraid to go. Davis 
promptly responded: 

"No, I am not; and there isn't a man in my 
company that is."** 

He immediately gave the command to 
march, and the men of Acton wheeled from the 
left of the line to the right, and were the first to 
march upon the invaders. 

Major John Buttrick of Concord led in person 
this little army down the slope towards the 
river, but not until he had offered the command 
to a superior officer who happened to be present, 
but without a command, Lieut.-Col. John 
Robinson of Prescott's Regiment. Robinson 
lived in Westford, and had responded to the 
alarm. Magnanimously he refused the honor 
to lead, but with characteristic bravery, begged 
that he might march by Buttrick's side, which 

* Journal of Capt. David Brown, Commander of one of the Con- 
cord companies, as quoted by Adams, page 32. 
t Ripley. 

t Deposition of Bradley Stone. 
*♦ Depositions of Bradley Stone and Solomon Smith. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 83 

the latter acceded to. These were the two men 
in front of all the American host to first march 
against the soldiers of their King. 

Then came Captain Isaac Davis and his 
company of thirty-seven men from Acton. 
Then next, a Concord company under Charles 
Mijes. Then two more Concord companies 
under Capt. David Brown and Capt. Nathan 
Barrett.* Another company from Acton, then 
fell into line, the one commanded by Capt. 
Simon Hunt. They were just turning the 
corner of the main road when the firing at 
the bridge took place, f By order of Col. 
Barrett the companies from Bedford and 
Lincoln next fell into line. The march was by 
twos, and to the tune of "The White Cockade," 
played by two young fifers, Luther Blanchard 
of Davis's Acton company, and John Buttrick 
of Brown's Concord company. J 

Down the road, now discontinued, in a 
southerly direction to the point of the triangle, 
then back towards the Bridge in an easterly 
direction, in all about a quarter of a mile, they 
marched.** The British watched the advance 
keenly, and when the southerly point of the 
triangle was reached, and the columns wheeled 
left towards the Bridge, they commenced to 
pull up the planks. Major Buttrick, in a loud 
voice, ordered them to desist, whereupon they 
left the Bridge and hastily formed for action in 
the road just beyond the easterly end. Then 

♦Corporal Amos Barrett of Brown's Company indicates Davis's 
as first and his own company as third. The exact order of the 
other participating companies I am unable to give. 

t Statement of .A-aron Jones, a member, to Mr. Adams. See 
Adams's Address, page 21. 

t Frederic Hudson. 

** Doolittle picture. Adams, 1835. Frothingham, 1851. 



84 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

came the report of the first hostile gun in the 
battle of Concord, fired from the British ranks. 
Solomon Smith,* a member of Davis's Acton 
company, saw where the ball struck the river, 
on his right, which then ran nearly parallel to 
the road. This was quickly followed by two 
others, but they were not thought by the 
Americans to be aimed at them either. 

Still onward marched Major Buttrick and his 
little band. They soon came nearly to the 
Bridge, when a sudden volley from the British 
indicated their serious intention to check the 
American advance. Luther Blanchard, the 
fifer from Acton, was slightly wounded. j 

Major Buttrick heard his cry of anguish, and 
almost jumping into the air, exclaimed: 

"Fire, for God's sake, fire!" 

The order was obeyed. The British re- 
sponded, killing Capt. Davis and one of his 
privates, Abner Hosmer. Davis on realizing 
that Blanchard was wounded had taken a 
firmer position on a flat stepping-stone, and 
while aiming his gun received a bullet through 
his heart. Hosmer was killed by a bullet 
through his head. J Ezekiel Davis, brother of 
the Captain, and a private in his company, 
was wounded, as was also Joshua Brooks of 
Lincoln, whose forehead was slightly cut by a 
bullet which continued through his hat.** 

The opening volley of the Americans was 
also effective, killing one private, and wounding 



* Deposition of Solomon Smith, 
t Deposition of Solomon Smith. 
t Frederic Hudson. 
** Deposition of Amos Baker. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 85 

Lieut. Hull of the Forty-third Regiment; Lieut 
Gould of the Fourth; Lieut. Kelly of the Tenth- 
Lieut. Sutherland of the Thirty-eighth ; and a 
number of the rank and file. 

The Americans under Major Buttrick ad- 
vanced and the three British companies, under 
Lowrie, gave way, and retreated towards 
Concord village. They were met on the way by 
reinforcements consisting of two or three com- 
panies headed by Lieut.-Col. Smith himself, 
who was responding to a very urgent request 
for assistance from Capt. Lowrie, sent just 
before the engagement began. Smith being a 
very fat, heavy man," according to the testi- 
mony of one of his officers, who has left an 
interesting diary for our perusal,* instead of 
reaching Lowrie at the Bridge met him but a 
little way out of the village. 

From the moment of that heroic advance of 
the Ahiericans over the bridge, militarv disci- 
pline among them ceased. f They rushed after 
the retreating British but a few rods, then pro- 
ceeded to an eminence on the east side of the 
road back of Elisha Jones's house, taking 
position there behind a stone wall, and perhaps 
an eighth of a mile from where the British halted 
when they were met by their reinforcements.J 

^r^n-i^o^""'"'! °'^'""' *" ?°^^<'." '" 1"5- See also Rev. Mr. Emer- 
fnr L?f K- "^^'^ speaks of the "marches and counter-marches 
mfnH •• Q ^.l"''- '^'^u *^]!^"' ^'■''^* fickleness and inconstancy of 
^]^^' . '^u^ can hardly be blamed for nervousness at that 
CnT. H 7^^ ^^"^ °l ^" «'sht hundred men at Col. Barretfs, five 
South Brid^e^"''^"^ between, and another part of his force at the 

di,t>rH?i'"^°o''^"^»-^"^ rSl* ^^ "^'^^ o^f^efs pursued, but in great 
-Th. l^c Deposition of Thomas Thorp of the Acton Company, 
sion thlt f^L°"H -^P'r^'" '^•^? the cause of much of the confu- 
Company '°"°'^*''^- Deposition of Solomon Smith of the Acton 

t Deposition of Solomon Smith. 



86 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Why the Americans turned aside instead of 
pursuing their enemies into Concord village as 
they had resolved to do, can only be surmised. 
Why they gave no heed to the small force still 
behind them up the river, engaged in destroying 
American property at Col. Barrett's, excites our 
wonder, too. Not lack of personal courage 
surely, but rather a lack of military experience. 

While these scenes were being enacted at the 
North Bridge, the British force above alluded 
to, and consisting of three companies under 
Capt. Parsons, had gone up the river, to the 
home of Col. Barrett, nearly two miles from the 
Bridge. They were under the direct guidance 
of the spy. Ensign De Bernicre, who had pre- 
viously gone over the road, and made himself 
familiar with its topography, and particularly 
with the hiding of military stores among the 
homes along the way. He knew thoroughly 
well of those at Col. Barrett's, and that? place 
above all others was the principal objective. 

Early that morning the men in the Barrett 
family had busied themselves in securing the 
Colonial stores. They had plowed a tract of 
land about thirty feet square, south of the old 
barn and later used as a kitchen garden. One 
guided a yoke of oxen, in turning over the 
furrows, into which others dropped the muskets 
that had been stored in the house. Succeeding 
furrows covered them nicely. Musket balls 
were carried to the attic, put into the bottoms 
of barrels which were then filled with feathers.* 
Other munitions were hidden in the adjoining 
woods, t 

• Sidney, Margaret. Old Concord, Her Highways and Byways, 
t Rev. Mr. Emerson's Narrative. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 87 

When the soldiers reached there they found 
the homestead in care of the venerable wife of 
Col. Barrett. Capt. Parsons explained his 
mission, and assured her it was his aim to 
destroy public property only, and to capture 
Col. Barrett.* They commenced their search, 
but did not find as much as expected, f Nor 
did they capture the commander of the minute- 
men. 

While this work was in progress, Col. Barrett's 
son, Stephen, a young man of about twenty-five 
years, returned from his mission, up the river 
road to Price Plain, to intercept minute-men 
expected from Stow, Harvard, and other towns 
in that vicinity. He wished to inform them of 
the danger surrounding his own home, that they 
might travel by some other road into Concord. 

Reaching the kitchen door of his own home 
he was met by a British officer, who, thinking 
he might be Col. Barrett, placed him under 
arrest. Upon learning from Mrs. Barrett, 
however, of his mistake, that he was her son, 
the young man was released. J Another son, 
James, Jr., being lame and inactive, did not 
attract any hostile attention.** 
h So successfully had Col. Barrett and his 
numerous assistants secreted the large amount 
of provincial property left in his charge, that 
Capt. Parsons found but little to confiscate or 
destroy. He seized and burned a few gun- 
carriages in the road near the house, ff 



* Sidney, 
t De Bernicre. 
J Sidney, page 23. 

** Frederic Hudson. The Concord Fight in Harper's New 
Monthly Magazine, May, 1875. 
tt Ripley. 



8S THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

This was the remotest point of the Britisli 
iri'vasion. The three companies at Col. Bar- 
rett's had by far the longest route of any, by 
several miles. After a night without sleep, and 
so long a march they were hungry and thirsty, 
and Mrs. Barrett was requested to supply their 
wants. She was in no position to refuse. 
Some, if not all, were willing to pay for what 
they had, but the good lady refused, saying: 

"We arc commanded to feed our enemy if he 
hunger." 

Some, however, insisted, and on leaving 
tossed their money into her lap. She could only 
exclaim: 

"It is the price of blood!"* 

The object of their mission being accom- 
plished, so far as within their power, they set 
out for a return march to the village by the 
same roundabout route over the North Bridge, 
as they came. When at Widow Brown's 
Tavern at the cross roads, within about a mile 
of the Bridge, they halted and three or four 
officers entered the house for drink. The 
soldiers sat at the roadside, and drink was 
carried out to them. Pay was offered to Mrs. 
Brown by the officers, but she declined to 
receive it. Charles Handley, a youth in his 
thirteenth year, and a native of Concord, was 
living there, and has left his sworn statement, 
that he then heard the guns at the Bridge, but 
that the British did not appear to notice them. 
It was then generally understood that they 
knew nothing of the engagement until their 
arrival at the scene, and saw the British slain. f 



* Frederic Hudson. 

t Charles Handley's Deposition. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 89 

There were two, one having been killed instantly, 
and the other, at first wounded, and while 
helpless, despatched with a savage cut in the 
head with a hatchet. It seems that after the 
British had been driven from the Bridge and 
the Americans had also passed in pursuit, a 
young man employed by Rev. William Emerson, 
at the Old Manse (still standing, 1912), came 
forth to view the field of strife. He saw the 
wounded Briton attempting to arise, and in a 
thoughtless moment, conceived it his patriotic 
duty to kill him. He did so, as the soldier was 
on his knees, in a futile attempt to stand. The 
hatchet sank deep into his skull, and the blood 
gushed forth, and covered the top of his head, 
as he sank back to Concord battle ground. A 
little later the British force under Capt. Parsons 
passed him on their way to the village. They 
could only shudder, and bear away the im- 
pression, which was subsequently published, that 
the Americans had scalped and cut off the ears 
of their enemies.* The young man who did 
the deed lived many years, and often confessed 
that his conscience had been sorely troubled. f 

The men under Captain Parsons were thus 
permitted to join the main body of British very 
much to their surprise, and which was forcibly 
expressed by Ensign De Bernicre in his account 
of the battle. J As we have seen, the main body 



* Deposition of Zechariah Brown and Thomas Davis, Jr., who 
buried the two soldiers in a common grave near where they fell. 
A memorial stone marks the spot. 

t I have his name, but do not think it best to insert it in this 
narrative. Revenge was deeply impressed on his mind by the bit- 
terness of public feeling against the mother country. He was too 
young to e.xercise proper judgment in separating the soldier from 
his King. 

J See De Bernicre's Account. 



90 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

of the Americans halted on the high ground to 
the eastward of the Elisha Jones house. From 
that moment to the arrival of the British at 
Charlestown Neck, no one seemed to be in 
command, and discipline of any kind was not 
attempted. 

While military critics cannot endorse the 
kind of warfare employed by the Americans on 
that day, almost if not quite of a guerilla nature, 
yet it must be confessed that their death roll 
was much smaller and their success, in some 
respects much greater, than it would have been 
had they fought as an army, in the open, under 
some brave commander. The British, on the 
other hand, were ever in the highway, standing 
or marching in a solid formation. The Ameri- 
cans were never more than a dozen or a score, 
side by side, and usually not more than two or 
three. Their selected position was a sheltered 
one; behind the walls; among the trees; even 
within the houses. Often the vigilant flank- 
guard, which Lieut. -Col. Smith counted upon so 
intelligently, came upon them unawares, and so 
added to the American death roll. Had they 
known the value of the flanking movements, and 
still fought as individuals as they did from the 
North Bridge to Charlestown Neck, but few 
would have been slain. 

As we have seen, the Americans halted on 
the high ground to the eastward of Elisha 
Jones's house. They felt that when the re- 
treating British were reinforced, they would 
return and renew the struggle. In their strong 
position behind the stone wall they had no- 
cause to fear an assault, for the advantage 
would be greatly with them. But Lieut. -CoL 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 91 

Smith also realized as much and turned his 
troops back into Concord village. 

Several of the minute-men then returned to 
the North Bridge, and conveyed the bodies of 
Capt. Isaac Davis and private Abner Hosmer 
to the home of Major Buttrick, which stood 
near the spot from which they started on their 
fatal march.* Later in the day they were con- 
veyed to Acton. 

Such was the baptism of Concord soil with 
the blood of its brave defenders. 

Captain Mundy Pole of the Tenth Regiment 
with one hundred men, had been detailed by 
Lieut.-Col. Smith for guard duty at the South 
Bridge. He was also instructed to destroy any 
public stores that he might find in that vicinity. 

The Bridge is nearly a mile southerly from 
the village, and in an opposite direction from 
the North Bridge, the two being nearly two 
miles apart. 

Captain Pole reached there about eight 
o'clock, and promptly placed a guard at the 
Bridge to prevent any one passing into or out 
of the village. Then he foraged the immediate 
neighborhood for food and drink for his force, 
which was easily accomplished, as most of the 
able bodied men were absent on patriotic duties. 

They searched the houses of Ephraim Wood, 
Joseph Hosmer and Amos Wood, but with 
slight success, for most of the stores once there 
had been secreted elsewhere. The Britons 
demeaned themselves nicely in this neighbor- 
hood and were generous enough to pay for what 
food they took. Each of the women at Amos 

* Deposition of Solomon Smith. 



92 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19. 1775. 

Wood's house was presented with a guinea. 
In this home was one room pretty well filled 
with goods that were sought for. It was locked, 
but the gallant officer believing that women 
were hiding within, issued orders that none of 
his soldiers should enter it. 

Capt. Mundy Pole's little expedition to this 
part of Concord, was not entirel}' without 
results, however. He succeeded in knocking oflf 
the trunnions of three iron twenty-four pound- 
ers, burning their carriages, destroying a small 
quantity of flour, and several barrels of trench- 
ers and wooden spoons.* 

Some of his soldiers ascended Lee's Hill, about 
one hundred feet f higher than, and overlook- 
ing, the river down to North Bridge. From 
there they could plainly see the growing excite- 
ment, as evidenced by the moving about of the 
minute-men, and the constant accession to their 
numbers. Finally there came echoing up the 
valley, the signal gun, then two more, then the 
volley; and they knew the scene on Lexington 
Common was being re-enacted. 

They descended the Hill, and gathered with 
the others at the South Bridge, removed the 
planks therefrom to protect their retreat, and 
marched rapidly back to the main body in the 
village.! 

Lieut. -Col. Smith now commenced to realize 
his distance from Boston and the dangers that 
might lurk along the way. He had his entire 
force assembled in Concord village very soon 
after ten o'clock, but his manv wounded soldiers 



* De Bernicre. 

t U. S. Geological Survey, 1886. 

I Frederic Hudson. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 93 

required attention before he could begin his 
return march. Some of them were attended 
by Dr. Cumings and Dr. Minot, of the village.* 
As no provision had been made by the British 
commander for the transportation of his dis- 
abled soldiers, the people of Concord were 
called upon to supply the deficiency. A chaise 
was confiscated from Reuben Brown, and 
another from John Beaton. Bedding from 
near-by houses was added for the comfortTof 
the riders. Several horses were taken, among 
them one belonging to Capt. Smith of the 
Lincoln Company, which he had, for some 
reason, left at Wright Tavern, before he 
marched for North Bridge. Lieut. Hayward 
of Concord, recaptured Reuben Brown's chaise 
from the regulars in Arlington, and with it a 
horse, bedquilt, pillow, etc., for the owners of 
which he advertised in the Essex Gazette of 
Aug. 10, 1775. t 

Besides his wounded, Lieut. -Col. Smith had 
his able-bodied men to consider also. They 
had been without sleep since the time of starting 
from Boston Common, at half past ten o'clock 
the evening before, and possibly back to the 
night before that. They had already marched 
over seventeen miles to Concord village, and 
those who had gone to Col. Barrett's, and to 
the North and South Bridges, so much farther 
yet. They had passed through the exciting 
scenes of bloodshed at Lexington Common and 
North Bridge, which must have added agitated 
minds to weary bodies. His soldiers needed 



* Frederic Hudson, 
t Frederic Hudson. 



94 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19. 1775. 

rest and Smith knew it, and was justified in 
granting the two hours that he did. 

Aside from those reasons Smith had another 
good one for not starting, at once. It will be 
remembered that when he had reached Arlington 
(Menotomy) realizing his march had aroused 
the entire community, he had sent back an 
urgent request to Gen. Gage for strong re- 
inforcements. He could reasonably expect them 
to reach any place that he had, within three 
hours at least, of his time. But unfortunately 
for Smith the forces under Percy had not 
started until nine o'clock that morning, and 
were then less than five miles on the way, and 
coming over a longer route than he had taken.* 
The destruction of the public military stores 
according to the report of Lieut.-Col. Smith' 
hardly balanced his loss of prestige even, to 
say nothing of the British lives that had been 
and would be given up in the cause. He gives 
his men credit for knocking the trunnions off 
from three field pieces of iron ordnance; de- 
stroying by fire some new gun carriages, and a 
great number of carriage wheels; and throwing 
into the river considerable flour, some powder, 
musket balls and other small articles. De 
Bernicre in his account, adds to the list, by 
mentioning barrels of trenchers and spoons of 
wood destroyed by Capt. Pole. 

While the bonfire was consuming the cannon 
wheels, it was discovered that the Court 

™.t ^'^.I'^l ^It'^y of A British Officer in Boston in 1775. and who 
was with Smith in the Concord expedition, he writes of th^ return to 
Lexington and the expected re-inforcements: "We had been flat- 
ter a ever since the morning with the expectation of the Brigade 
coming out, but at this time had given up all hope of it, as it was so 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 95 

House, facing the Green, was on fire. It was 
noticed by Mrs. Martha Moulton, an elderly 
widow who lived close by, and who had not 
fled with the younger part of the population 
as the enemy approached. She felt that her 
years, seventy-one, would be her protection, as 
indeed they were. She has left an interesting 
statement of the events of those few hours, — 
how her home was invaded by the soldiers for 
food and water; how Pitcairn and other officers 
sat before her door, watching the soldiers in 
their destructive work; how she discovered the 
Court House on fire, and how earnestly she 
pleaded with them to put it out, even bringing 
water for them to do so. At first they were 
indifferent, but finally yielded, and extinguished 
the flames. Thus was the Court House saved, 
and possibly some of the adjoining homes, by 
Martha Moulton.* 

The provincial Congress, in their published 
account of the damages sustained in Concord, 
aside from the public stores, set the value at 
;^274, 16s, 7 d. of which £3, 6s, was for broken 
locks in His Majesty's Jail.f 

LIEUT.-COL. SMITH'S RETREAT 
THROUGH CONCORD. 

It was about twelve o'clock when Lieut.-Col. 
Smith gave the order to march. As the neigh- 
boring hills were covered with provincials,! he 

* Petition of Martha Moulton, Concord, Feb. 4, 1776, to the 
Honorable Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay for recog- 
nition of her services on that occasion. 

t Journals of Each Provincial Congress. 

J De Bernicre thought there could not have been less than five 
thousand rebels on the hills about Concord. His anxiety greatly 
multiplied the real number. 



96 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

ordered out even larger bodies of flankers, and 
farther away from the main body in the high- 
way. The march along the Lexington road for 
a little more than a mile to Meriam's Corner, 
was uneventful, but at that place the struggle 
was renewed. There the men of Concord, 
Acton, Lincoln, and Bedford, came within rifle 
shot of the highway. They had passed along 
the Great Meadow, so called, northerly from 
the range of hills near the highway, and reached 
Meriam's Corner at about the same time that 
Smith did. 

New American forces joined the contest here 
also. Billerica sent Lieut. Crosby with twelve 
men; Capt. Edward Farmer, thirty-five men; 
and Capt. Jonathan Stickney, fifty-four men. 
Chelmsford sent Capt. Oliver Barron, sixty-one 
men, and Lieut. Moses Parker's company, 
forty-three men. Framingham sent Capt. 
Simon Edgett, seventy-six men; Capt. Jesse 
Ernes, twenty-four men; Capt. Micajab Glea- 
son, forty-nine men.* Reading sent, Capt. 
John Bacheller, sixty-one men; Capt. Thomas 
Eaton, sixty-three men; Capt. John Flint, 
seventy-nine men, and Capt. John Walton, 
eighty-eight men. Some of the Reading com- 
panies, at least, marched from home under 
Major, afterwards Governor, John Brooks. 
Rev. Edmund Foster accompanied Capt. Bach- 
eller's company, as a volunteer, and has left an 
interesting narrative of Avhat he saw. Sudbury 
sent Capt. Nathan Cudworth, forty men; Capt. 
Aaron Haynes, thirty-nine men; Capt. Isaac 
Locker, thirty men; Capt. John Nixon, fifty- 



* Massachusetts Archives. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 97 

four men; Capt. Joseph Smith, forty-nine men, 
and Capt. Moses Stone, twenty-five men. VVo- 
burn sent Capt. Samuel Belknap, sixty-six men; 
Capt. Jonathan Fox, seventy-two men; and 
Capt. Joshua Walker, one hundred and sixteen 
men. 

The American reinforcements coming in at 
Meriam's Corner numbered eleven hundred 
and thirty-seven, making a total of fifteen 
hundred and sixty-five enrolled men in 
the ranks of the Provincials if all at the 
North Bridge still remained in the fight. 

There were many other minute-men anxious to 
be in the first struggle, but who lived too far away. 
Stow sent a company of militia belonging to 
Col. Prescott's regiment, commanded by Capt. 
William Whitcomb, numbering eighty-one men. 
They did not reach North Bridge until about 
noon, too late to be in the action there, but in 
ample time to be active in the pursuit. We are 
told that another company from Stow under 
Capt. Hapgood, also joined, but I find no 
returns in the Massachusetts State Archives. 

Three companies from Westford reached the 
North Bridge too late, but were active after- 
wards. They were respectively under the 
command of Capt. Oliver Bates, thirty-six men; 
Capt. Jonathan Minot, thirty-six men; and 
Capt. Joshua Parker, forty-one men. 

As the Reading men came along the road from 
Bedford, and nearing Meriam's Corner, they 
discovered the flank guard of the British just 
descending the ridge of hills. There were from 
eighty to one hundred red-coats, and they were 
marching slowly and deliberately down the hill, 
without music and without words. The Ameri- 



98 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

cans were but a little over three hundred feet 
away. They halted and remained in silence 
watching their foes. The British flankers soon 
gained the main road, at the Corner, and passed 
along a few hundred feet towards Lincoln and 
Lexington, over the little bridge that spans 
Mill Brook. The Americans gathered around 
the Meriam house. As the British passed the 
bridge they wheeled suddenly and fired in 
volley, but too high, so no one was struck. 
Then the Americans returned the fire with 
better aim, and two Britons fell on the easterly 
side of the little stream, while several were 
wounded, among them Ensign Lester of the 
Tenth Regiment.* 

Less than half a mile along that road, from 
Meriam's Corner, is the northerly corner of 
the town of Lincoln. Along on the edge of 
Lincoln the highway continues ; still in an 
easterly direction, for less than another half 
mile, this stretch being on rather higher 
ground, the northerly side of the road in 
Concord, the southerly side in Lincoln. On 
the Lincoln side is the Brooks Tavern (still 
standing, 1912). This little elevation is called 
Hardy's Hill, and is about sixty feet higher than 
Concord village, t Along the summit the skir- 
mishing was actively renewed, and continued 
down its easterly slope into Lincoln, 

This ended the struggle in Concord, but her 
sons and the others were not mindful of the 
boundary line. To them it was more than the 
Battle of Concord; it was the Battle of April 
Nineteenth. 



* Rev. Edmund Foster and Ensign De Bernicre. 
t U. S. Geological Survey. 1886. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 99 

The patriots who died in Concord were Capt. 
Isaac Davis, and private Abner Hosmer, both 
of Acton. The wounded were Luther Blanch- 
ard and Ezekiel Davis also of Acton; Jonas 
Brown of Concord and Joshua Brooks of 
Lincoln. These were all at the North Bridge. 
Abel Prescott, Jr., of Concord was wounded while 
in the village. The British killed were two 
privates at North Bridge, and two at Meriam's 
Corner bridge. Their wounded were Lieut. 
Gould of the Fourth Regiment, Lieut. Kelly of 
the Tenth Regiment, Lieut. Sutherland of the 
Thirty-eighth, and Lieut. Hull of the Forty- 
third, and a number of privates; all at the 
North Bridge. At the little bridge near Meri- 
am's Corner Ensign Lester of the Tenth 
Regiment and several privates were wounded. 

LIEUT.-COL. SMITH'S RETREAT 
THROUGH LINCOLN. 

At the foot of the easterly slope of Hardy's 
Hill is a little stream crossing the road in a 
northerly direction. It is in Lincoln, and on 
most maps is put down as Mill Brook, the 
same that curves around and crosses the road 
near Meriam's Corner, rather more than a mile 
back. At Hardy's Hill it has sometimes been 
called Tanner's Brook.* 

The British had now reached this point, and 
were marching rapidly, keeping their flankers 
out parallel to the highway. 

Over the bridge and up another slight rise 
and then the road turns at a sharp angle to the 
left, northeasterly, to still higher ground about 

*Frothingham's Siege of Boston. Rev. Mr. Foster's Account. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 101 

eighty feet higher than Concord village. On 
the northwesterly side of that road was a heavy 
growth of trees and on the opposite side a 
younger growth. On each side of the road, in 
those two forest growths, man}" American 
minute-men were posted.* They had antici- 
pated the passing of the British, by hurrying 
across the Great Fields, so called, from the 
Bedford Road near Meriam's Corner. Among 
these were the Bedford company under Capt. 
Willson. This forest lined road was only about 
a half of a mile in extent before it turned again 
to the eastward. 

When the foremost British reached this 
location the Americans poured in a deadly 
volley, that killed eight and wounded many 
others. 

The contest was by no means one-sided. 
The attention of the Americans here, as all 
along the line to Charles town, was too firmly 
fixed on the ranks of the enemy marching in 
the road. The British flankers were unnoticed 
and unthought of. Silently and rapidly they 
swung along, on their parallel lines, and very 
often closed in on those little tell-tale puffs of 
smoke that arose behind the trees and walls, 
and among the bowlders. Thus were many 
Americans surprised and slain — more, probably 
twice or thrice over, than were killed by the 
soldiers in the highway. 

It was at this bloody angle of Battle Road, 
that Capt. Jonathan Willson of Bedford met his 
death. And so did Nathaniel Wyman, a native 
of Billerica, but a member of Capt. Parker's 
Company. Daniel Thompson, of Woburn, was 



* Foster's Account. 



102 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

also killed here. Another son of Bedford, Job 
Lane, was severely wounded and disabled for 
life.* 

The next day five of the British killed were 
removed to the little cemetery, near Lincoln 
village several miles away, for burial. Not 
many years ago the Town of Lincoln caused to 
be placed over their common grave, a neat and 
appropriately lettered Memorial Stone. 

After the northeasterly angle the road turns 
again easterly towards Lexington. Half or 
three quarters of a mile along are the two 
Hartwell houses, still standing (1912), on the 
northerly side of the road, and but a few 
hundred feet apart. 

In the westerly, or first one, lived Sergt. 
John Hartwell, and in the easterly one, Sergt. 
Samuel Hartwell, both members of Capt. 
Smith's Lincoln Company. Both were absent 
on duty then, but the wife of Samuel was at 
home. She has furnished a vivid narrative of 
what she saw and experienced, that afternoon 
and the following morning. Her first alarm of 
the coming Britons was reports of musketry, 
seemingly in the vicinity of the Brooks Tavern. 
Then nearer and nearer, to the bloody angle. 
Then the hurrying red-coats themselves, anxious 
and wild in their demeanor, as they hurried 
along past her house. And how one, in his 
insane anger, fired into their garret, though he 
could see no foeman there. f 

For another mile along the Lincoln road the 



•steams, Jonathan F. Bedford Sesqui-Centennial, page 26. 
Ripley, page 21, seems to think that Lane was wounded a little 
farther along at the Hartwell barn. 

t Beneath Old Roof Trees, by Abram English Brown, page 221 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 103 

British must have had some relief, for the 
country is comparatively level, the fields extend- 
ing away smoothly on either side. It was not 
a complete lull in the battle, however, for an 
American bullet terminated the life of one 
Briton at least. The remains were uncovered 
a few years ago when the road builders were 
widening and grading anew the highway. He 
was re-interred over the bordering wall in the 
field to the southwest of the highway, a short 
distance westerly from Folly Pond.* 

Then comes an easterly bend in the road, 
though still continuing nearly level, and for 
about a quarter of a mile, to the Nelson house. f 
Here lived Josiah Nelson, the Lincoln patriot, 
who, as we have written, alarmed his neighbors 
in Bedford the night before. Around it were 
many picturesque bowlders, large enough to 
shelter venturesome minute-men. And they 
were there. William Thorning, one of Capt. 
Smith's Lincoln company, had fired on the 
British from some hiding place in this neighbor- 
hood, and they had returned his fire and chased 
him into the woods. As he was thus escaping 
the main body, he met the ever vigilant flank- 
guard, and but narrowly escaped them also. 
Later as they passed along, he advanced to one 
of the Nelson bowlders and fired again, at the 
British, probably with fatal effect. Across the 
road from the house is a little knoll which is 



* statement of Mr. George Nelson, near-by resident, who saw 
the remains and pointed out to me in 1890 the locations of the 
old and new graves. 

t Standing until a few years ago, although in a shattered con- 
dition. It had been abandoned as a habitation for many years. 
A conflagration completed its destruction, and now only the scar of 
its cellar-hole, and a pile of bricks that formed its mammoth chim- 
ney and hospitable hearth, mark where it stood. 



104 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

called "The Soldiers' Graves,"* even to this 
day, for therein sleep two British soldiers whose 
summons undoubtedly came from behind the 
Nelson bowlders. 

About a sixth of a mile yet farther along, 
stood the home of Samuel Hastings, near the 
Lexington boundary line, yet within the town 
of Lincoln. Hastings was a member of Capt. 
Parker's Lexington Company, f and was present 
and in line for action when Pitcairn gave that 
first order to fire. As the British column swept 
along, One of the soldiers left the ranks and 
entered the house for plunder, unmindful of 
the dangers lurking in the adjoining woods and 
fields. As he emerged and stood on the door- 
stone, an American bullet met him, and he 
sank seriously wounded. There he lay, until 
the family returned later in the afternoon, and 
found him. Tenderly they carried him into 
the house, and ministered to his wants as best 
they could, but his wound was fatal. After his 
death they found some of their silver spoons in 
his pocket. He was buried a short distance 
westerly from the house. J 

It was in Lincoln that Captain Parker's 
Lexington Company, numbering in all one hun- 
dred and twenty men, again went into the action, 
probably not far from the Nelson and Hastings 
homes; and also the Cambridge Company 



* Statement to me in 1890, of Mr. Nelson, owner of the old 
ruins with the surrounding fields, and who pointed out "The Soldiers' 
Graves." 

t See his deposition in Journals of Each Provincial Congress of 
Mass., but I do not find his name in any other place as a member. 

t I am indebted to the great-grandchildren of Samuel Hastings, 
Cornelius and Charles A. Wellington, for this statement. They were 
residents of Lexington, but since both have died. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 105 

under Capt. Samuel Thatcher, seventy-seven 
men, joined the pursuit from there.* 

The American fataHties in Lincoln, as we 
have seen, were Capt. Jonathan Willson, of 
Bedford; Nathaniel Wyman of Billerica, who 
was a member of Capt. Parker's Lexington 
Company; and Daniel Thompson of Woburn. 
Job Lane of Bedford was slightly wounded. 

The exact British loss in Lincoln cannot be 
stated. It is known that eight were killed at 
the Bloody Angle, and at least four more along 
the road from there to the Hastings house. 
Many were wounded but no statement or 
■estimate has ever been given. The distance 
across that part of the town is about two miles, 
and the fighting severe for more than half the 
way. 

LIEUT.-COL. SMITH'S RETREAT 
TO LEXINGTON VILLAGE. 

As the British forces again invaded Lexington 
soil undoubtedly they looked for vengeance 
from the hands of the little band that stood 
before them in the early morning. If they did 
anticipate as much they were not disappointed, 
for as we have stated Captain Parker and his 
men had come out into the edge of Lincoln to 
meet them. 

Just over the line into Lexington, and a few 
rods north of the road, the land rises about 
fifty feet rather abruptly and with a ledgy 
face. This little summit commands a grand 
view up and down the road, for quite a distance, 
and therefore was an ideal location for the minute- 



* See Massachusetts State Archives where twenty-eight miles 
'is the distance charged for by most of his men. 



106 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

men. Many were there awaiting the passing 
of the British, and when they were opposite^ 
poured down on them a volley. At least one 
fell, an officer, for a few years ago a sword was 
taken up from the depth of about four feet, 
evidently from his grave. It was almost con- 
sumed with rust, but enough remaining to« 
identify it as of British make and of that period. 
The reports of muskets, and little puffs of blue 
smoke betrayed the location of the marksmen, 
and the British at once returned the fire. Their 
aim was without effect. One of their bullets 
flattened against the ledge, and was also found 
by the present owner of the land, buried in the 
decayed leaves and refuse at the base of the 
ledge.* 

Not more than a quarter of a mile farther 
along the road, stood Bull's Tavern, f in later 
times known as Viles Tavern. Nothing now 
remains of it but the cellar-hole and that is not 
so deep as once. The soldiers ransacked the 
house for food and drink, but left no recom- 
pense. A few rods more the road turns north- 
easterly around a bluff twenty feet high, per- 
haps. The struggle was renewed there furiously, 
for the British flankers could not manoeuvre tO' 
protect the main column so well, and they 
suffered severely for half a mile or more towards 
Fiske Hill. Lieut.-Col. Smith was wounded 



* The sword and bullet were found by Mr. John Lannon about 
1895, and from whom I obtained them. He was then as now owner 
of the farm. In removing a bowlder from his garden it was nec- 
essary to dig around it and on one side to a depth of about four 
feet. There he found the sword and a little of its rust-eaten 
scabbard, and quite likely in the grave by the side of its wearer. 
The bullet once round, now not half that, had struck the ledge 
rather than the American on its summit, and fell harmlessly at the 
base. 

tRev. Mr. Foster called it Benjamin's Tavern. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 107 

by a bullet passing through his leg.* Major 
Pitcairn's horse becoming unmanageable through 
fright, threw him to the ground, and escaped 
into the American lines, where he was captured, 
together with equipments, including the Major's 
beautiful brace of pistols, f 

Many British were wounded, and many 
killed, along this part of Battle Road. A little 
way from the bluff, over the wall on the opposite 
side of the road and in a southerly direction, 
are graves of two. No memorial stone marks 
the exact spot, and even the mounds, too, have 
long since dissolved away. J 

The contending forces were now climbing 
Fiske Hill, about sixty feet higher than the 
bluff.** The road at that time passed higher 
up than at present, and near the summit 
fighting was more severe again. One Briton, 
at least, fell there and was buried in the little 
strip of ground between the old and new road. 



*De Bernicre's Account. 

t The accoutrements were taken to Concord and later sold by 
auction. Capt. Nathan Barrett bought the pistols, beautiful ones, 
with elaborately chased silver mountings, with Pitcairn's name 
engraved thereon. Capt. Barrett offered them to Gen. Washington, 
who declined them, and then to Gen. Putnam, who carried them 
through the war. They were brought to Lexington on Centennial 
Day, April 19, 1875, for exhibition by Rev. S. I. Prime, D.D., on 
behalf of the owner, a widow of John P. Putnam, of Cambridge, 
N. Y., who was the grandson of Gen. Putnam and to whom they 
descended. Later Mrs. Putnam gave them to the town of Lex- 
ington and they are now on exhibition by the Lexington Historical 
Society (See Handbook of Lexington, 1891.) Rev. William Emerson 
of Concord, requested of the Third Provincial Congress, June 1, 
1775, the use of a horse, probably Pitcairn's, which they granted 
specifying one captured from a regular by Isaac Kittredge, of Tewks- 
bury, Capt. Nathan Barrett, and Henry Flint, of Concord, Mr. 
Emerson to pay a reasonable price for its keeping up to that time 

J Statement to me by the late Rev. Carlton A. Staples. 

** U. S. Geological Survey, 1886. 



108 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

A heap of small stones once marked the spot, 
but they have disappeared.* 

Down the easterly slope of Fiske Hill stands 
a modest little farmhouse, on the southerly side 
of the road. It was then the home of Benjamin 
Fiske. The entire family had fled, and the 
stragglers from the British columns entered for 
pillage. One in his greed stayed too long. 
Brave James Hay ward of Acton, willing to fight 
though exempt from military service because 
of a partially dismembered foot, met him at the 
door, laden with booty. The Briton recog- 
nized in Hayward an enemy, and raising his 
gun, exclaimed, 

"You are a dead man!" 

"And so are you," responded Hayward as he 
raised his gun also. Both fired — both fell, the 
British instantly killed and Hayward mortally 
wounded, the ball piercing his bullet-pouch and 
entering his side. He lived eight hours and 
was conscious to the last. Calling for his 
powder horn and bullet-pouch, he remarked 
that he started with one pound of powder and 
forty bullets. A very little powder and two or 
three balls were all that were left. 

"You see what I have been about," he ex- 
claimed, calling attention to the slight remainder. 
"I am not sorry; I die willingly for my coun- 
try."t And so Concord and Lexington, too, 
reverently treasure the memory of brave Acton 
men, whose life blood stained the soil of each. 



* Statement of H. M. Houghton to the Rev. Carlton A. Staples, 
who so informed me. Mr. Houghton lived in that vicinity during 
his boyhood and furnished a roughly sketched plan to Mr. Staples. 

t James Fletcher's History of Acton, in Kurd's History of 
Middlesex County. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 109 

Up the westerly slope of Concord Hill, an 
elevation named after her sister town, marched 
the British. Their ranks were broken and 
disordered. Many had been wounded, many 
had been killed, and many had fallen exhausted 
by the wayside. It was then about half past 
one o'clock, and they had marched rather more 
than twenty-three miles. At that time their 
ammunition began to give out, which added to 
their discomfiture. Their enemies seemed to 
be countless and everywhere. De Bernicre, 
the spy, who was with them, has left a vivid 
word picture of how anxious they were getting. 
"There could not be less than 5,000," he says 
in his account, "so they kept the road always 
lined, and a very hot fire on us without inter- 
mission. . . . We began to run rather than 
retreat in order." Lieut.-Col. Smith, says, in 
his report, that the firing on his troops, which 
began in Concord, "increased to a very great 
degree and continued without the intermission 
of five minutes, altogether for I believe upwards 
of eighteen miles." 

Such was the impression on the minds of 
Smith, and his weary soldiers as they hurried 
along down Fiske Hill and up Concord Hill. 
If he entertained any idea of surrendering, 
though I have no evidence that he did, he must 
have realized the hopelessness of that, for no 
one seemed to be commanding the multitude 
before him, beside him, and behind him. They 
constituted a large circle of individuals, but 
made no attempt to stay his march or guide it 
in any way. They just followed along, seem- 
ingly intent only on hunting down the King's 
soldiers. Had some master mind been in charge 



110 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

of the patriot army, Smith's entire force could 
easily have been taken prisoners. But this was 
the first day of the war, and was only a contest 
between soldiers and citizens. And so Smith 
was allowed to march along. 

Near the foot of the westerly slope of Concord 
Hill stood the home of Thaddeus Reed.* He 
was one of Captain Parker's Company. After 
the British passed along the Americans picked 
up three severely wounded soldiers and carried 
them into the house, where they all died. They 
were buried not far away, a few feet westerly 
of Wood St., on the northerly side of a stone 
wall still standing, and but a few rods from 
Battle Road. Their graves are unmarked and 
almost unknown, t 

The British flankers were now so thoroughly 
tired out that they could hardly act in that 
capacity, and were of but little use as protectors 
of the main body. The severely wounded were 
abandoned to some extent. Many of the 
slightly wounded were carried along somehow, 
but they greatly impeded the march. Hopes 
of reinforcements were practically abandoned. J 

And so they proceeded up the hill, the sum- 
mit of which is fully forty feet higher than 
Fiske Hill and at least eighty feet higher than 
Lexington Common,** now in view less than a 
mile away. They must have been anxious to 
reach and pass that little field. Down the 
easterly slope of Concord Hill they almost ran, 

* See Foster's Narrative. 

t The exact spot was pointed out to me by the late Rev. Carlton 
A. Staples, Sept. 11, 1900, who received his information accom- 
panied by a plan from H. M. Houghton. 

t Diary of a British Officer in Boston in 1775, who was a member 
of the expedition. 

*♦ U. S. Geological Surveys, 1898, 1900. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19 1775. Ill 

in more or less confusion and intense excite- 
ment. The Americans were actively keeping 
up their firing, and so more Britons were killed 
and wounded, three of the latter so severely that 
they were abandoned by their fellow soldiers, 
fell into the hands of the Americans and were 
taken into Buckman Tavern.* One subse- 
quently died and was buried with the British 
slain in the old cemetery near by. Their graves 
are unmarked. f 

The British did not stop to disperse any 
rebels on Lexington Common, for none were 
there to oppose their retreat, but passed off the 
south-easterly point, as the Americans came 
promptly after them on the northwesterly side. 
It was between two and three o'clcok when they 
reached the site of the present Lexington High 
School, a trifle more than half a mile from the 
Common. There they met the long-wished for 
reinforcements, under Lord Percy, who opened 
his ranks, and enclosed them in his protecting 
care. Many sank immediately into the road 
where they halted, for their physical condition 
was pitiful in the extreme. One of the con- 
temporary English historians, an officer in the 
British Army in America, has described them 
as lying prone on the ground, Hke dogs with 
protruding tongues. J 

Percy then quickly wheeled about his two 
field pieces,** and opened fire up the road, 
towards the Common, where he could see the 



* Foster's Account. E. P. Bliss gives the number as two, in Lex- 
ington Hist. Soc, I. 75. 

t E. P. Bliss, in Lexington Historical Society, I, 75. 

J C. Stedman. History of the Origin, Progress, and Termina- 
tion of the American War. London, 1794. 

** Percy's Report to Gen. Gage. 



112 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Americans were gathered. It was not fatal in 
its effect, but served to scatter them and do 
considerable damage to the meeting-house, one 
ball passing through it. Col. Loammi Baldwin, 
of Woburn, was one who had been standing in 
sight of the British, but he sought shelter be- 
hind the sacred edifice when he realized the 
enemy had opened fire with artillery. When 
a ball passed through the meeting-house and 
came out near his head he retreated north- 
westerly to the meadow.* 

Not many of the Americans had been killed 
thiTs far, in the retreat of the British through 
Lexington. We have spoken of James Hay- 
ward of Acton, killed on the easterly side of 
Fiske Hill, and must add the name of Deacon 
Josiah Haynes of Capt. Nixon's Sudbury Com- 
pany, who met his death somewhere along the 
road from Fiske Hill to Lexington Common. f 
He was a venerable man, in his seventy-ninth 
year, J and had marched from his home down 
to Concord village, up through Lincoln, and . 
into Lexington. He was thoroughly in earnest 
in his work of driving the British back to 
Boston, and in an unguarded moment exposed 
himself to one of the King's riflemen. 

On the Lexington part of Battle Road, many 
British were killed and many wounded. Among 
the latter were Lieut. Hawkshaw, Lieut. Cox, 
and Lieut. Baker, all of the Fifth Regiment; 
Ensign Baldwin and Lieut. McCloud, of the 
Forty-seventh Regiment; and Captain Souter 

* The damage to the meeting-house by the cannon bal! cost the 
Town of Lexington to repair £1 Is. Rev. C. A. Staples in Lex- 
ington Historical Society, I, 21. 

t Ripley. 

t Hudson's History of Sudbury. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 113 

and Lieut. Potter of the Marines.* I have 
previously mentioned the wounding of the com- 
mander, Lieut.-Col. Smith, on the westerly 
slope of Fiske Hill. 

After the British had departed from Lexing- 
ton immediate attention was given to the Lex- 
ington patriot dead who were slain on the 
Common in the early morning. From the field 
of battle they had been borne to the meeting- 
house, and there a simple service held over them, 
consisting of a prayer by Rev. Jonas Clarke. 
Then they were carried to the little church- 
yard, where one broad grave received them all. 
It had been a day of terror in Lexington, and 
some fear was felt that the enemy might return 
and wreak yet further vengeance, even upon 
the dead. So the grave was made in a remote 
part of the yard, near the woods, and the fresh 
mound of earth itself hidden beneath branches 
cut from the neighboring trees. f And not for- 



* De Bernicre. 

t "Father sent Jonas down to Grandfather Cook's to see who was 
killed and what their condition was and, in the afternoon, Father, 
Mother with me and the Baby went to the Meeting House, there 
was the eight men that was killed, seven of them my Father's 
parishoners, one from Woburn, all in Boxes made of four large 
Boards Nailed up and, after Pa had prayed, they were put into 
two horse carts and took into the grave yard where your Grand- 
father and some of the Neighbors had made a large trench, as near 
the Woods as possible and there we followed the bodies of those 
^rst slain. Father, Mother, I and the Baby, there I stood and there 
I saw them let down into the ground, it was a little rainey but we 
waited to see them covered up with the Clods and then for fear 
the British should find them, my Father thought some of the 
men had best Cut some pine or oak bows and spread them on their 
place of burial so that it looked like a heap of Brush." 

I am indebted to the Lexington Historical Society, Proceedings, 
Vol. IV, page 92, for the above extract from a letter written by Miss 
Elizabeth Clarke, daughter of Rev. Jonas Clarke. It is dated from 
Lexington, April 19, 1841, and written to her niece, Mrs. Lucy Ware 
Allen, whose mother was Mary, another daughter of Rev. Mr. 
Clarke. The writer. Miss Elizabeth, was then in her seventy- 
eighth year. I am inclined to think that Asahel Porter, the Woburu 
man, was buried in his own town. Though killed near the Common 
he was not one of Capt. Parker's Company. 



114 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

gotten three score years later, their grateful 
fellow townsmen removed their remains to the 
field where they died, and erected a monument 
to their memory. 

EARL PERCY MARCHES TO REINFORCE 
LIEUT.-COL. SMITH. 

As the command of Lieut.-Col. Smith will 
now rest for a brief period, let us go back to 
Boston and start with Earl Percy, on his 
mission to reinforce the former, and consider 
his delays and difficulties, and why he got no 
farther than Lexington. 

As we have seen, it was between two and 
three o'clock in the morning when Smith 
reached Arlington, and became alarmed at the 
increasing attention his soldiers were attracting; 
— attention that seemed to him hostile, he 
despatched back to Gen. Gage an urgent request 
for reinforcements. His messenger should have 
reached Gage within two hours easily, for to 
retrace the march was less than six miles by 
land with an additional half a mile or little 
more by boat across the Charles River. So 
Gen. Gage should have had Smith's message 
by five o'clock, at least. He acted promptly, 
by ordering the First Brigade, consisting of 
eight companies of the Fourth, Twenty-third, 
and Forty-seventh Regiments, under arms, and 
to these were added two detachments of the 
Royal Marines to be under Major John Pitcairn. 
Two pieces of artillery, six pounders, were also 
added to the force, and the whole placed under 
the command of Lord Percy, with the title, for 
the occasion, of Acting Brigadier General. His 
little army numbered about one thousand men. 




Tldii^/ted, Se/i/" OC^ /^(?4 /y Jo/tnFtWdi'f^.S'af'ir JVc^her ^ou/- 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 115 

It was about seven o'clock when the eight 
companies assembled on Tremont Street, and 
the line extended from Scollay Square to the 
lower part of the Common. There they 
waited for Pitcairn and his Marines, nearly 
two hours. Finally it dawned upon the mind 
of General Gage that his orders to that worthy 
officer might still be lying on his desk unopened, 
for he had been granted permission to accom- 
pany Lieut.-Col. Smith as a volunteer, and 
perhaps had gone. Such proved to be the case 
and the two hours were lost. Then another 
commander for them was selected, and they 
were in line at nine o'clock.* These two hours 
would have meant Percy's force almost into 
Concord instead of into Lexington village, and 
would have made great difference in the results 
of the day's fighting. 

Percy, mounted on a beautiful white horse, 
headed the column, and they proceeded over 
Boston Neck, through the present Washington 
Street, to Roxbury, up the hill to the meeting- 
house, then to the right, where the old Parting 
Stone then stood, even as it does to-day. In 
Roxbury his soldiers excited the attention of a 
very young patriot, who laughed derisively as 
the musicians played "Yankee Doodle." Lord 
Percy noticed him and asked the reason of his 
mirth. The boy responded: 

"To think how you will dance by-and-by to 
Chevy Chase." 

The British commander felt uncomfortable 
the rest of the day because of the suggestive 



* Frothingham'3 History of the Siege of Boston. 



116 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

and prophetic reply.* He continued into 
Brighton and to the westerly bank of the 
Charles River, opposite to Harvard Square in 
Cambridge. At that place the river is narrow 
and thus easily bridged even in those early 
days, and over that was then the only way 
into Boston by road from the upper towns in 
Middlesex County. 

The Americans, anticipating Percy's move- 
ments, had taken up the planks of the bridge, 
but did not continue the good work thoroughly, 
for they piled them handily on the Cambridge 
side. It was a simple matter for Percy's en- 
gineers to cross over on the stringers and re-lay 
enough of them for his soldiers to pass into 
Cambridge. But had the planks been farther 
removed Percy was prepared to replace them, 
for he had brought with him sufficient for the 
purpose and carpenters to do the work. He 
anticipated the partial destruction of the 
bridge at least, and prepared his remedy accord- 
ingly, and must have been surprised at the 
point where the Americans concluded their 
labors. He carried his planks along about a 
mile and a half, and then sent them back as they 
were only an encumbrance. He had no use for 
them on his return for he had another plan, as 
we shall see later on.f 

It was at the bridge that Percy marched 
ahead and left his wagon train of supplies to 
follow on, as soon as they could safely cross. 



* William Gordon's History of the Rise, Progress, and Estab- 
lishment of the Independence of the United States of America. 
N. Y., 1794. Vol. I, page 312. 

t Rev. Isaac Mansfield, Jr., Chaplain of Gen. Thomas's Regi- 
ment, in a Thanksgiving Sermon in Camp at Roxbury, Nov. 23, 
1775. See Thornton's Pulpit of the American Revolution, page 236. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 177S. 117 

The delay to them was considerable and so the 
main army soon passed out of sight. 

The round about route the British had taken 
to reach Harvard Square was necessary, at that 
time, because as we have stated, no bridge 
crossed the river lower down. Could he have 
crossed as we do to-day, the distance would have 
been but a little over three miles, whereas it 
was eight miles as he marched, or nearly two 
hours more time. He could not cross in boats 
as did Lieut. -Col. Smith, for two reasons: first, 
his soldiers were too many, and secondly, the 
boats were even then moored on the Cambridge 
side awaiting Smith's return. 

When Percy reached Cambridge, he was some- 
what puzzled to know just which way to start 
for Lexington. In his official report he declares 
the houses were all shut up and there was not a 
single inhabitant to give him any information 
about the force under Smith. He did find one 
man, Isaac Smith, a tutor in Harvard College, 
who directed him along the right highway. 
When his fellow citizens of Cambridge learned 
of this free intelligence, a little later on, they 
were indignant — and Isaac Smith, feeling 
reproved, shortly afterwards left the country 
for a while. It does not appear that he in- 
tended to aid and abet the enemy, but granted 
the little courtesy without thinking of its value. 
It was regretted that Percy was not sent 
down into the marshes bordering Willis Creek, 
and so delayed an hour or more.* 

The British marched rapidly on leaving 
Harvard Square and were soon quite a distance 



* Edward Everett Hale in Memorial History of Boston. Vol. 3. 



118 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

ahead of the baggage train, deeming it safe to 
leave it to follow under the guidance of a ser- 
geant's guard of twelve men. It was no small 
task to get it safely over the dismantled bridge, 
and the delay there was considerable. Vigilant 
Americans watched the proceedings and realized 
the opportunity to seize it. They hurried on 
to Arlington to formulate their plans for its 
capture. As Cambridge seemed to be generally 
deserted, the sergeant and his men evidently 
felt no uneasiness at their delay. In due time, 
however, they were on the march again, headed 
for Lexington.* 

Not long after they passed the Charlestown 
road, the Beech Street of today, Dr. Joseph 
Warren and his friend Dr. Thomas Welsh came 
into Cambridge. Warren lived in Boston, and 
left his home that morning and crossed the 
ferry into Charlestown. There he met Welsh 
and many other citizens and communicated to 
them the news he had received by special 
messenger from Lexington. It was then about 
ten o'clock.! A little after, he and Dr. Welsh 
on horseback, were on their way to Cambridge, 
where they arrived, only to find the road ahead 
occupied by the baggage-train. They en- 
deavored to pass but were not permitted to do 
so. The sergeant inquired of Dr. Warren if he 
knew where the British troops then were; but 
the doctor could only give a negative reply. 
There seemed to be quite a little uneasiness in 
the minds of the British, as they evidently 
feared they were too widely separated from the 



* West Cambridge on the Nineteenth of April, 1775, An Address 
by Samuel Abbot Smith, Boston, 1864, page 27. 

t Frothingham's Siege of Boston. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 119 

main body and might be captured.* A guard 
of twelve men is not a large force to conduct 
a baggage-train through a hostile country. 
Percy's first and most serious mistake had been 
committed. It was then noon-time, or a little 
after. 

In the meantime about a dozen of the elderly 
men of Menotomy, exempts mostly, assembled 
near the centre of the village and waited the 
arrival of the baggage train. Among them 
were Jason Belknap, Joe Belknap, James Budge, 
Israel Mead, Ammi Cutter and David Lamson, 
a half Indian. Some of them had served in 
the French War. Rev. Phillips Payson, A. M., 
of Chelsea, was also present and took an active 
part.f They chose Lamson to be leader, and 
took a position behind a stone wall on the north- 
erly side of the road, nearly opposite the First 
Parish Meeting-House. As the baggage-train 
appeared nearly opposite, Lamson ordered his 
men to rest and aim at the horses, at the same 
time calling out to the sergeant to surrender. 
He made no reply, and his driver whipped up 
the horses to escape. It was too late, for 
American bullets easily stopped them, killed 
two British soldiers and wounded several 
others. J The soldiers then abandoned their 
charge and ran southerly along the westerly 
shore of Spy Pond, as far as Spring Valley, 
where they came upon an elderly lady of 
Menotomy, known as Mother Bathericke, 
engaged in digging dandelions. They begged 
her assistance and protection, consequently she 



* Edward Everett Hale in Memorial History of Boston, Vol. 3. 
t Brown's Beneath Old Roof Trees. 
J Smith's Address. 



120 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

conducted them to the house of Capt. Ephraim 
Frost, where they were detained as prisoners,* 
and probably to their mental relief. They 
were thoughtful enough not to include their 
guns in the surrender, for some were thrown into 
Spy Pond, and one was ruined by striking it 
heavily over a stone wall and bending it hope- 
lessly out of shape. 

The captured wagons were drawn down 
into the hollow, still to be seen a little north- 
easterly of the present Arlington railroad 
station, where the contents were distributed 
freely to all comers. The living horses were 
driven off to Medford, and the bodies of the 
dead ones, in accordance with the suggestion 
of the Rev. Mr. Cook, who feared exciting the 
anger of the returning British, were dragged 
away to the field near Spring Valley, westerly 
of Spy Pond. And there, for many years, their 
bones bleached in the sun.f 

All other marks of the contest were obliterated 
from the highway, that Percy might not trace 
what had happened to his baggage-wagons and 
wreak vengeance upon the townspeople. 

Gen. Percy J marched less than two miles 
beyond Arlington centre, when he distinctly 
heard the firing in Lexington. He was not far 
from the boundary line between Arlington and 
Lexington and the time was, as he has written, 
between one and two o'clock.** At about that 



* Smith's Address. Some of the opposition newspapers in Eng- 
land were quite merry and some quite sarcastic over the surrender 
of six lusty soldiers to one old woman, and inquired, on that basis, 
how many British troops would it take to conquer America ? 

t Smith's Address. 

t He signed his official report to Gen. Gage, "Percy, Acting 
Brig. Gen." So that was his title for April Nineteenth. 

** See the rough or preliminary draft of his report to Gage. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 121 

time he met Lieut. Gould of the Fourth, or 
King's Own Regiment, who, as we have written, 
was wounded at the North Bridge and was 
then returning in a borrowed Concord chaise, 
drawn by a borrowed Concord horse. From 
him Percy learned the details of Lieut. -Col. 
Smith's march, and of his present urgent need 
of assistance. He hurried along towards Lex- 
ington, and Lieut. Gould continued his retreat 
towards Boston, but was captured as he reached 
Arlington village. The exact spot was on the 
present Massachusetts Avenue, near Mill Street, 
and his captors were some of the old men who 
liad destroyed the baggage-wagons. Gould 
was first taken to Ammi Cutter's, and then to 
Medford,* and his own deposition shows that 
he was kindly treated. 

At last, after a march of nearly sixteen 
miles, t Percy met the returning force under 
Lieut. -Col. Smith, who had passed Lexington 
Common, the scene of his engagement in the 
morning, and was down the road towards 
Boston, half a mile. The place of meeting was 
opposite the present Lexington High School, 
and the time between two and three o'clock. 
Percy being the ranking officer, immediately 
took command of the united forces. It did 
not take him long to realize the terrible condi- 
tion that Smith's troops were in, and to minister 
to their wants. As they halted in the road, his 
own ranks opened to receive them, and there 
they sank to the ground utterly exhausted. 
Such as could eat or drink were supplied from 

* Smith's Address, pages 31, 32. 

t To be exact, for I have measured the route over which 
'he marched, it was 15|J miles. 



122 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

his own stores, while the wounded were takem 
still farther down the road, less than a quarter 
of a mile, to the Munroe Tavern, which he pro- 
ceeded to establish as his headquarters and for 
use as a hospital. Near the place of meeting, 
coming in from the eastward, was then and is 
now, the Woburn road, the bordering walls of 
which sheltered plenty of American minute- 
men. Back a little to the southward rose the 
modest elevation now sometimes called Mt. 
Vernon. Americans were there also, for it was 
high enough for them to look down on the 
highway very nicely if permitted to do so. 
Percy's flankers, however, were directed to clear 
all surrounding locations of enemies to the 
King, and Mt. Vernon and the Woburn road 
were soon under the British flag again, or nearly 
so. But occasionally from some obscure or 
neglected corner, rose a puff^ of blue smoke and 
then the wearer of that brilliant red uniform 
would tumble over in the road, wounded or 
dying, or dead. Little bodies of minute-men, ■ 
unorganized always, were seen dodging back 
and forth around the meeting-house on the 
Common. Other little groups, and many 
singly, were noticed climbing over walls, emerg- 
ing from, and disappearing again, behind 
clumps of bushes, and trees, and houses; hardly 
ever in sight long enough to shoot at. Percy, 
thinking to awe them, wheeled his two six- 
pounders into position and opened his first 
cannonade on the meeting-house on Lexington- 
Common. It was likewise the first cannon 
fired in the American Revolution. No American 
was killed, or even wounded, but the house of 
God in Lexington suffered, and it cost the 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 123 

town some money to repair it. The cannon 
ball crashing through the meeting-house did 
have the effect to drive the Americans farther 
back, and probably out of rifle range for a 
while. 

Percy having thus scattered his near-by 
enemies then moved one of his six-pounders a 
few rods down the road near the present Bloom- 
field Street, then up the little elevation to the 
southward, now called Mt. Vernon. The pre- 
cise spot was probably about opposite the 
northerly end of the present Warren Street. 
He strongly supported it with a part of his 
brigade.* This location was an excellent one 
for artillery, as it commanded the highway 
for fully a mile to Lexington Common and 
beyond. As before, his gunner could find no 
American long enough in one place to aim at.. 
So there were no fatalities. 

While Smith's soldiers were resting, some of 
those under Percy as reinforcements wandered 
about that part of the village bent on mischief 
and pillage, not the kind usually indulged in by 
the average rowdy element of an army, but on 
a much larger and grander scale. Houses and 
outlying buildings were looted and burned. 
The first ones were owned by Deacon Joseph 
Loring, non-combatant, seventy-three years of 
age, situated close by the meeting place of the 
two detachments, on the westerly side of the 
road. This group of buildings consisted of a 
mansion house, a barn seventy-five feet long, 
and a corn house. All were completely de- 

* In his report he states that he "drew up the Brigade on a height." 
Only Mount Vernon was easily accessible for such a movement. 
See also Doo''**''^'" *' ^ \7;«... *-»f *v.« c^i.fVi v>nrt- nf T.f.vinafnn " for" 
confirmation. 



124 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

stroyed, together with such of their contents as 
could not be carried away. About two hun- 
dred rods of Loring's stone walls were also 
pushed over, emphasizing strongly the feeling 
of hostility existing among the British soldiers 
for their American cousins. His loss was ;^720.* 
This wanton and needless destruction of prop- 
erty must have been by the express command 
of Percy, for he was but a few rods away. 

On the easterly side of the road, nearly oppo- 
site the Loring house, standing on the site of 
the present Russell House, was the home of 
Matthew Mead. That, too, was within a few 
rods of where Percy sat on his white horse, but 
it was ransacked by his soldiers, and Mead's 
loss was ;^101.t 

Another plundered Lexington home in that 
neighborhood belonged to Benjamin Merriam, 
one of Parker's Company, and of course absent. 
His house was not burned, but damaged to the 
extent of £6. His loss of personal property 
amounted to £2X1, 4 s.J The building is still 
in existence, but has been moved easterly into 
Woburn Street across the railroad tracks. Its 
original location was on the westerly side of 
Massachusetts Avenue, a few rods north of 
Winthrop Road, and easily within sight of the 
British commander, Lord Percy. 

And let us not forget that from that time on, 
Percy was in supreme command of the united 
British forces, amounting to nearly eighteen 
hundred men. To him belongs the credit of a 
masterly retreat, for his loss in killed and 

* Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass. in 1775, page 686. 
t Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass. in 1775, page 688. 
% Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass in 1775, page 688. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 125 

wounded was surprisingly small considering the 
number of American riflemen in pursuit. To 
him belongs the blame also for the burned 
homes of inoffensive non-combatants, for the 
killing of such helpless old men as Raymond; 
for the summary removal of Hannah Adams 
and her infant from child-bed; for the killing of 
feeble-minded William Marcy; for the killing 
of fourteen-year old Edward Barber. His 
entire march back to Charlestown was thickly 
dotted with just such incidents, unrelieved by 
any conspicuous merciful action, or by any 
deed of bravery. It was a masterly retreat, 
indeed, — and it was a brutal one, too. Happily 
for the American patriots in succeeding contests, 
no other British commander seemed inspired 
by such revengeful instincts. Happily for the 
British historian he has no other such brutal 
events to apologize or blush for. Percy occupies 
his one page in history, uniquely, at least. His 
services in America, terminated soon thereafter, 
and at his own request, and for some reason 
which we know not of. Possibly he was satis- 
fied with the fame, such as it was, which he won 
on that glorious day.* 

The next Lexington home to be destroyed by 
the incendiary belonged to the widow Lydia 



* A majority of the voters of Lexington in town _ meeting 
assembled liave re-named a near-by street, "Percy Road," in com- 
memoration of his visit on that Nineteenth of April. Almost 
any other foeman's name would have been better, if it is thus 
necessary to mark a growing feeling of respect and kindliness be- 
tween two nations of kindred blood. Its older name was Mt. 
Vernon Street! 

The town has many street names in memory of that battle day, 
such as Adams, Clarke, Hancock, Muzzey, Revere. Percy Road 
starts from near the old Munroe Tavern. What better name could 
there be for this thoroughfare than Munroe Avenue, in memory of 
Sergeant William Munroe, or of liis grandson James S. Munroe, who 
has generously left the Tavern to be forever open to the public for 
inspection. 



126 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Mulliken and her son. It stood not far from 
Loring's, on the main road to Boston, nearly 
opposite the present Munroe School. The 
clock shop connected with the same estate was 
also burned. As in the previous cases such 
personal effects as were desired by the soldiers 
were first removed and subsequently carried 
away. The works of a valuable musical clock 
were found in the knapsack of a wounded Briton, 
when he was subsequently captured.* The 
Mulliken loss was ;^431.t 

John Mulliken, cabinet-maker, son of the 
widow, and living in Concord, joined in the 
pursuit, and came as far as Lexington. There 
he saw his mother's house in flames, which 
affected him so deeply that he could proceed no 
farther. { 

A modest little home and shop belonging to 
Joshua Bond, standing northwesterly from 
Munroe Tavern, and very near the present 
beginning of "Percy Road," were first looted, 
and then burned. His loss was ;^189, 16 s. 7 d. 

The greater part of these happenings were 
within that first half hour after Percy took 
command of the united British forces, and 
before he began his retreat. This energetic 
destroyer of American homes had selected 
Munroe Tavern as his temporary headquarters, 
and ordered his wounded conveyed there also. 
While their wounds were being dressed his men 
demanded such refreshments as the place could 
provide, and unlike Smith's subordinates in 



* Lexington Historical Society Proceedings, III, 135. 
t See Doolittle's "A View of the South Part of Lexington," for 
an idea of those burning Lexington homes. 

J Lexington Historical Society Proceedings, lO, 135. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 127 

Concord, were not considerate enough to pay 
for them. So landlord William Munroe's loss 
was £203, 11 s. 9 d., of which ;^90 was in the 
"retail shop," presumably of a liquid nature. 
As he was orderly sergeant in Captain Parker's 
Company, he was naturally absent on duty, 
and left a lame man, John Raymond, in charge, 
who waited upon the unbidden guests because 
he was compelled to. His last service was to 
mix a glass of punch for one of the red-coats, 
after which he essayed to escape through the 
garden. He was not alert enough, for two 
soldiers fired, and one of their bullets readily 
overtook him as he hobbled away.* Thus one 
more was added to the list of American dead, 
one of the easiest victims, of course, for he was 
simply an unarmed cripple. This probably 
happened at the rear of the Tavern. 

A few rods from the Tavern, down the road 
towards Boston, were two more Lexington 
homes, on opposite sides of the street, and so 
quite near to each other. They are still stand- 
ing (1912). In the one on the westerly side 
lived Samuel Sanderson, a member of Capt. 
Parker's Company. He was not at home, so 
they killed his cow instead, not for food, but 
for the pure pleasure of killing something. 
Evidently landlord Munroe's liquor was having 
some effect, if not in making men braver, then 
in making them more brutal. Sanderson did 
not report the amount of his loss to the Legisla- 
ture. On the easterly side of the road lived 
John Mason and family. All were absent so 



* A carefully written newspaper clipping evidently from a Boston 
periodical, dated April 19, 1858, preserved in a scrap book once 
ibelonging to the Thomas Waterman collection of American History. 



128 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

the soldiers permitted themselves to carry 
away property to the value of £14, 13 s, 4 d.* 

Many other homes in Lexington were ran- 
sacked, mostly during Percy's halt. The total 
loss, as reported to the Legislature in 1783, 
amounted to ;^1761, 1, 15; nearly $9,000 
as computed in money of to-day. Undoubtedly 
many minor losses were not reported at all. 

While these events were happening, the 
American riflemen were not idle. From Mt. 
Vernon to the westward, and from the Munroe 
meadows to the eastward, came many leaden 
messengers, some of them effective. Among 
the British officers wounded, and probably most 
of them during the halt, were Lieut. Hawkshaw, 
Lieut. Cox, and Lieut. Baker, of the Fifth, 
Ensign Baldwin and Lieut. McCloud of the 
Forty-seventh; and Capt. Souter and Lieut. 
Potter of the Marines. Many privates were 
killed and wounded. t 

Shortly after the meeting of Percy and 
Smith, Gen. William Heath of Roxbury arrived 
in Lexington, and endeavored to effect the 
organization of the American forces into the 
semblance of an army. Dr. Joseph Warren 
arrived on the scene at the same time. Heath's 
efforts were hardly successful, as the patriots 
chose to fight as they had from the beginning, 
singly and self-commanded. It appears that 
Heath had first gone to Cambridge, to meet 
the Committee of Safety, and from there in- 
tended to go to Lexington, but fearing the 
British were in possession of the road in that 
direction had taken one across to Watertown. 



* Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass. in 1775. 

* De Bernicre's Report. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 129 

Finding there some of the mihtia of the town 
awaiting orders, he directed them to Cambridge 
to take up the planks of the Boston bridge, 
barricade its southerly end and dispute the 
passage of the retreating British on their way 
home to Boston. Then he proceeded to Lex- 
ington and upon his arrival there was generally 
recognized as the commanding officer of the 
American forces. He found the people there 
aroused to great excitement caused by the 
bombardment of the meeting-house and the 
burning of so many homes.* 

It must have been half past three, or perhaps 
nearly four o'clock, when Percy gave the order 
to march. He realized the distance to Boston, 
and the dangers along the way. "As it now 
began to grow pretty late," he says in his 
official report, "and we had 15 miles f to 
retire, and only our 36 rounds, I ordered the 
Grenadiers and Light Infantry to move off 
first, J and covered them with my Brigade, 
sending out very strong flanking parties." 

The imposing display and the vigilant flank- 
ers had the desired effect of keeping the Ameri- 
cans at a comparatively safe distance, and so 
Percy and his little army marched down through 
East Lexington in safety. 

The looting section picked up considerable 
plunder from the abandoned homes along the 
way, evidently without protest from the com- 
mander. The march was a slow one, for 
Smith's weary and wounded soldiers had to be 

* Heath's Memoirs, page 201. 

t Then he had in mind to return by way of Roxbury, a longer 
march than to Charlestown. 

X De Bernicre says the Light Infantry was in front, then the 
Grenadiers. 



130 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

considered. Many of them were on the verge 
of collapse and quite a few dropped out of the 
ranks for good. De Bernicre in his account 
places the "missing" at twenty-six. One of 
these, a German, was discovered by the road- 
side in East Lexington soon after Percy had 
passed out of sight. He was well treated by 
the Americans, and made his home among them 
for many years.* 

The Americans killed in Lexington during 
the afternoon were Jedediah Munroe, and John 
Raymond. The British loss was much greater, 
for the Americans were being reinforced con- 
stantly by minute-men from the remote towns. 
Three companies from Newton entered the 
battle at Lexington, under the command re- 
spectively of Capt. Phinehas Cook, thirty-seven 
men; Capt. Amariah Fuller, one hundred and 
six men; and Capt. Jeremiah Wiswell, seventy- 
six men. Together these numbered two hun- 
dred and nineteen men, making the total enrol- 
ment of the Americans in pursuit of Percy as 
he passed out of Lexington, nineteen hundred 
and eighty-one men. 

PERCY'S RETREAT THROUGH 
ARLLNGTON. 

It was not far from half past four when the 
British crossed the Lexington line and entered 
into Arlington. Their retreating march in 
Lexington measured about two and one 
quarter miles. Along the road they had striven 
to kill in honorable battle. They had suc- 

* Told to me by the venerable Charles Brown still living (1911) 
in East Lexington. His grandfather, Capt. Edmund Munroe, was 
an active participant in the events of April 19th. 



132 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

ceeded but slightly, and paid an unusual price 
with a much larger number of their own dead 
and wounded. Percy's aim seemed to have 
been to terrorize his opponents at whatever 
cost. The life of Raymond was not taken in 
battle, nor can rapine and incendiarism add 
glory to his military renown. Lexington's 
highway to Arlington ran between pillaged 
and burning homes, and his soldiers staggered 
along under heavy burdens of property stolen 
from those whose King was his King. Con- 
cord and Lincoln have none of Percy's deeds 
related in their chronicles, but Lexington, and 
Arlington, and Cambridge, and Somerville, and 
Charlestown have good reason to remember his 
terrible conception of warfare. 

Gen. William Heath, as the commanding 
officer of the Americans, endeavored to organize 
his forces into something like an army. He 
did not greatly succeed, but re-formed some of 
the forces that had been scattered by Percy's 
cannonade, directed towards the meeting-house 
on Lexington Common.* 

Descending the high lands in the upper part 
of Arlington by the road, now known as Apple- 
ton Street, that skirts along the base of Arlington 
Heights, and drops to the "Foot of the Rocks," 
the Americans pressed in greater numbers and 
greater courage on Percy's rear guard. The 
bravery of individuals at this point became 
conspicuous and often foolishly hazardous. 
Percy, in his report, speaks of some concealed 
in houses by the wayside, who would emerge 
therefrom and approach within ten yards to 
fire at him and his officers — though sure of a 

* Heath's Memoirs. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 133 

fatal fire in return. He seemed surprised at 
their enthusiasm, as he called it, evidently 
forgetting how much he had excited their anger. 
It is almost beyond belief that he could have 
escaped through such a gauntlet, mounted as 
he was, on his beautiful white horse, a con- 
spicuous mark from the hillsides along the way. 
But he did, — for such is occasionally the 
fortune of war as granted to brave men. His 
personal courage was beyond question. 

The forces of the Americans was greatly 
augmented during the pursuit through Ar- 
lington. Minute-men from the nearby Middle- 
sex towns, and from Essex and Norfolk counties, 
arrived at the time and disposed themselves 
along a line parallel to the highway as their indi- 
vidual fancies dictated, and independent of any 
commander-in-chief. Along the hillside to the 
south, behind the walls, and even within build- 
ings adjacent to the road, they were posted, 
singly and in squads, among them many 
unerring marksmen, who added greatly to the 
British loss in killed and wounded. Percy 
would have been dismayed had be known the 
number of reinforcements he must then con- 
tend with, but they were not paraded for his 
inspection. His own army at the highest had 
not numbered over eighteen hundred men, but 
now considerably depleted, by his losses along 
the way, it is doubtful if it would equal fifteen 
hundred really effective soldiers. 

The i\mericans entering the contest at Ar- 
lington were from Brookline, Capt. Thomas 
White and ninety-five men, and possibly two 
other companies under Col. Thos. Aspinwall and 
Major Isaac Gardner, number of men un- 



134 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

known;* Watertown, Capt. Samuel Barnard, 
one hundred and thirty-four men; Medford, 
Capt. Isaac Hall, fifty-nine men; Maiden, Capt. 
Benjamin Blaney, seventy-six men; Roxbury, 
Capt. Lemuel Child, thirty-five men, Capt. 
William Draper, fifty men, Capt. Moses Whit- 
ing, fifty-five men; Dedham, Capt. Eben Battle, 
sixty-six men; Capt. Wm. Bullard, fifty-nine 
men, Capt. Daniel Draper, twenty-four men, 
Capt. WilHam Ellis, thirty-one men, Capt. 
David Fairbanks, fourteen men, Capt. Aaron 
Fuller, sixty-seven men, Capt. George Gould, 
seventeen men, Capt. Joseph Guild, fifty-nine 
men; Needham, Capt. Aaron Smith, seventy 
men, Capt. Robert Smith, seventy-five men, 
Capt. Caleb Kingsbury, forty men; Lynn, 
Capt. Nathaniel Bancroft, thirty-eight men, 
Capt. William Farrington, fifty-two men, Capt. 
Rufus Mansfield, forty-six men, Capt. Ezra New- 
hall, forty-nine men, Capt. David Parker, sixty 
three men; Beverly, Capt. Caleb Dodge, thirty- 
two men, Capt. Larkin Thorndike, forty-eight 
men, Capt. Peter Shaw, forty-two men; Danvers, 
Capt. Samuel Epes, eighty-two men, Capt. 
Samuel Fhnt, forty-five men, Capt. Israel Hutch- 
inson, fifty-three men, Capt. Caleb Lowe, 
twenty-three men, Capt. Jeremiah Page, thirty- 
nine men, Capt. Asa Prince, thirty-seven men, 
Capt. Edm. Putnam, seventeen men, Capt. John 
Putnam, thirty-five men ; Menotomy, Capt. Ben- 
jamin Locke, fifty-two men. Undoubtedly some 
of Locke's men were engaged earlier in the day, 
particularly those who lived in Arlington, for 
twenty-six of them assembled on the Common 



* Bolton's Brookline. White's was the only company to file 
claim for pay, however. See Mass. Archives. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 135 

at daybreak, and must have gone up to Lex- 
ington, at least. Of the other members, eleven 
were from Charlestown, seven from Boston, three 
from Stoneham, two from Lexington, one from 
Newton, and one residence unknown. Together 
these reinforcements at Arlington numbered 
seventeen hundred and seventy-nine men. 

Under the combined efforts of Gen. Heath 
and Dr. Warren the minute- men were en- 
couraged to rally and draw nearer the rear 
guard of Percy's column, to harass and destroy 
them. The two British field pieces were often 
turned on the Americans but were too cumber- 
some for effective use against the elusive 
minute-men. The cannon balls went tearing 
up the road, smashing trees and shrubs, toppling 
over stone walls, pushing jagged holes through 
buildings, striking terror into the hearts of 
women and children, and presumably many of 
the men, who were unused to war. 

This renewal of activities commenced in 
Arlington where the road comes in from Lex- 
ington, and skirts along the northerly base of 
Peirce's Hill, now called Arlington Heights. 
The descent from there to the plain is by a 
steep grade and the lower end of that part of 
the highway was then, and is now, known as 
Foot of the Rocks. This skirting, curved 
road around Peirce's Hill still exists. Its 
westerly end is now called Paul Revere Road, 
and its easterly end, Appleton St. Since that 
time a straight road with gentler grade has been 
made to connect the two ends of that part of 
Battle Road, and forms a part of the new 
Massachusetts Avenue from Boston to the 
Concord line. 



136 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19. 1775. 

It was at the Foot of the Rocks that Dr. 
Warren, brave even to recklessness, exposed 
himself to some vigilant British marksman, 
who could not fail to notice his enthusiasm and 
influence. The bullet came dangerously near 
the doctor's head, so near, in fact, as to strike a 
pin from his ear-lock.* Here, also. Dr. Downer 
of Roxbury engaged in single combat with a 
British soldier, whom he slew with a bayonet 
thrust, t 

Towards the summit of Peirce's Hill was 
the Robbins home. The family had Hed. 
Percy's flank-guard ransacked the house, built 
a fire on the kitchen floor, which burned off a 
line full of wet clothes hanging over it, letting 
them fall into the flames which were thereby 
extinguished.! 

Down this road a little farther stood the 
Tufts Tavern, once occupied by Mr. Cutler, 
the rich farmer and butcher, but at that time 
by John Tufts, previously of Medford, whose 
wife was Rebecca, a daughter of Mr. Cutler. 
It will be recalled that Tufts had been aroused 
in the early morning by the British, and when 
they returned the family had fled. Soldiers 
broke into the upper end of it, loaded themselves 
with such plunder as they could carry away, 
and maliciously destroyed some that they were 
obliged to leave behind. One thrust his bayo- 
net through the best mirror, the frame of which 
was long preserved.** While others, thinking 

* Heath's Memoirs. 

t Heath's Memoirs. 

X Mrs. Lydia Peirce's statement in Smith's Address, page 33. 

** Mrs. Almira T. Whittemore in Parker's Arlington, page 194. 
The tavern is still standing, or part of it, numbered 965 Massachu- 
setts Ave., opposite Mt. Vernon Street. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 137 

to serve their King, opened the taps of the casks 
containing molasses and spirits, allowing them 
to escape. Then they set fire to the building, 
and left in haste to rejoin their retreating com- 
panions. A faithful colored slave of Mr. 
Cutler's watching from a distance, entered soon 
after their departure and extinguished the fire. 

Richer plunder awaited the looters at the 
home of Joseph Adams, a venerable deacon of 
the Second Precinct Church. He had remained 
at home with his family until Percy's troops 
came into sight up the road. Then fearing his 
outspoken views, strongly antagonistic to the 
British ministry, might subject him to abuse 
by Percy and his soldiers, he determined to 
make his way across the fields to the Rev. Mr. 
Cook's barn. He was seen, and a volley of 
bullets followed, but he reached the barn, and 
hid in the hay. Some of the soldiers followed, 
even into the barn, and pierced the hay with 
their bayonets, but he was not exactly there. 
Some of them burst open the door of his home, 
and three broke into the chamber, where lay 
his wife and their infant child, but a few days 
old. The mother was too ill to arise, even. 
One of the soldiers opened the bed-curtains 
and with fixed bayonet, pointing to her breast, 
seemed about to slay her. She begged him not 
to kill her, but he only angrily replied: 

"Damn you!" 

Another soldier, with a more humane heart, 
interceded, and said, 

"We will not kill the woman if she will go out 
of the house, but we will surely burn it." 

Inspired by the threat, Mrs. Adams then 
arose, drew a blanket about herself and little 



138 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

infant,* and painfully made her way to the- 
corn-house close by. It was the first journey 
since her illness, as far as her chamber door 
even. Other children were left within the 
house, but she was too weak to be of any assist- 
ance to them. They had hidden under a bed, 
but curiosity getting the better of Joel, aged 
nine years, the little folks were all discovered, 
but not harmed. They saw the sheets stripped 
from the beds and household valuables dumped 
into them, even including the works of an old 
clock, an heirloom in the family. Most valu- 
able of all the booty, was the silver tankard 
belonging to the communion service given to 
the church in 1769, by Jonathan Butterfield.. 
It was subsequently pawned by the thief, to a 
Boston silversmith, Austin by name, who read 
the engraved inscription thereon and notified 
Deacon Adams. After the evacuation of Boston 
by the British, the two deacons redeemed the 
tankard at their own expense, and returned it 
to the church, where it is still in use. 

The soldiers of Lord Percy, then emptied a 
basket of chips on the floor, set them on fire 
with a brand from the hearth, and went on 
their way. The Adams children put out the 
blaze with a quantity of home-brewed beer, 
but not until the floor was badly burned, the 
ceiling smoked and a quantity of pewter plates 
on the dresser melted. f 



* This little child lived into womanhood and became the wife 
of James Hill. 

t Mrs. Adams's Deposition and Smith's Address, wherein he 
quotes Mrs. Thos. Hall, grand-daughter of Mrs. Adams, Rev. Mr. 
Brown's Sermon on James Hill, and S. G. Damon's article in The 
Christian Register, Oct. 28, 1854. The building, or part of it, is 
still standing (1912) being the ell of a building on the southerly 
side of Massachusetts Avenue, third house westerly from Bartlett 
Avenue. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 139 

A little farther along, on the westerly side of 
the road, lived Jason Russell, aged fifty-eight 
years.* Somewhat helpless because lame, he 
had started with his family at noontime for 
refuge at George Prentiss's on the hill. After 
going a little way he felt impelled to return and 
look after the safety of his home. He barricaded 
his gate with bundles of shingles and from 
behind them took his position to fire upon the 
enemy as they should come along and pass by 
in the road a rod away. Rather a feeble fortress 
from any military standpoint, and one that 
proved to be a death trap for its builder. 
Northerly across the road and across the brook 
lived Ammi Cutter, a kindly neighbor, who 
came and pleaded with Russell to abandon his 
door-yard for a place of greater safety. Russell 
replied that "An Englishman's house is his 
castle." Cutter remained by his side until the 
advancing British were seen up the road, and 
then started on the run across the road, over 
the wall and through the fields towards his 
home. Reaching the old mill-yard, and still 
running, he stumbled and fell between two 
logs, and the enemy's bullets scattered bark 
over him as he lay. They thought him dead 
because he fell as they fired, and so left him. 
But he was entirely uninjured. 

Back of the Russell house in a southerly 
direction, the land slopes gently upward for a 
little way, and then rises to a considerable 
height. Near the foot of this hill a goodly 
number of Americans were posted, among them 
the men from Danvers. Approaching along 



* Born Jan. 25, 1717. Paige's History of Cambridge. The old 
grave-stone in the cemetery at Arlington calls him 59 years old. 



140 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

the slope of the hill, and parallel to the highway, 
was a strong British Hanking party driving all 
before it. The Americans at that point were 
too few to openly resist, so retreated and entered 
the Russell house. Down the road came the 
main body under Percy, and perceiving the 
minute-men, advanced and opened fire. Rus- 
sell being lame, was the last to reach the door- 
way, where two bullets felled him. The 
soldiers rushed in and pierced him, as he lay, 
with eleven bayonet thrusts. Then they en- 
tered the house, and within that little home 
enacted the bloodiest tragedy of the day. 
Here, the seven men from Danvers were killed. 
The other Americans retreated to the cellar, 
and from the foot of the stairs threatened 
death to any Briton who should come down. 
One attempted to, and died on the way. An- 
other died in the struggle overhead. Then the 
house was plundered in accordance with Percy's 
method of warfare. 

After the British had passed, the Americans 
gathered at the home of Jason Russell. The 
dead from the yard, and within the house, were 
laid, side by side, in the little south room. 
There were twelve of them, and the blood from 
their wounds mingled in one common pool upon 
the floor.* 

The highway from Jason Russell's house, to 
the centre of Arlington village, proved to be 
the bloodiest half mile of all the Battle Road. 
Within this little stretch were killed twenty or 
more Americans, and as many or more Britons. 
And here, on the northerly side of the road, 



* King's Address and Smith's Address. The old home is still 
standing though removed a few rods back from its original location. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19 1775. 141 

not far from where the British convoy was 
captured, in the forenoon, stood another 
Adams home. It was punctured with bullets 
and it was stained with blood, for the dead and 
dying and wounded were carried there after 
the combatants had passed on.* 

One of the most unequal duels of any war 
was fought near here, between the venerable 
Samuel Whittemore, aged eighty years, and a 
number of British soldiers, acting as a flanking 
party, on the easterly side of the road. 

Whittemore lived with a son and grand- 
children near Menotomy River, and had been 
aroused early in the morning by the passing of 
Smith's forces on their way to Concord. Mrs. 
Whittemore then commenced her preparations 
for flight, to another son's house, near Mystic 
River, towards Medford. She supposed that 
her husband intended to accompany her, but 
was surprised to find him engaged in the war- 
like occupation of oiling his musket and pistols, 
and sharpening his sword. In his younger 
days he had been an officer in the militia. She 
urged him to accompany her and the children. 
He refused, with the excuse that he was going 
"up town" as he expressed it. He did so, 
arriving there before the British had returned. 
When they reached the neighborhood of the 
present railroad crossing they halted, some 
of them opposite Mystic Street. Whittemore 
had posted himself behind a stone wall, down 
Mystic Street about four hundred and fifty feet, 
near the corner of the present Chestnut Street. 

* It stood easterly of the present (1911) Town Hall. When 
the railroad went through, part of the house blocked the way and 
therefore the whole had to be demolished. The grand old elm that 
shaded the yard was destroyed in a gale and a smaller one now 
takes its place. 



142 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

The distance seemed an easy range for him, and 
he opened fire killing the soldier he aimed at. 
They must have discovered his hiding-place 
from the smoke-puff, and hastened to close in 
on him. With one pistol he killed the second 
Briton, and with his other fatally wounded a 
third one. In the meantime the ever vigilant 
flank-guard were attracted to the contest, and 
a ball from one of their muskets struck his head 
and rendered him unconscious. They rushed 
to the spot, and clubbed him with their muskets 
and pierced him with their bayonets 
until they felt sure that he was dead. Soon 
after they left him, he was found by the Ameri- 
cans, and as he seemed to still live they bore 
him to the Cooper Tavern. Dr. Tufts of 
Medford was summoned, but declared it useless 
to dress so many wounds as the aged man could 
not possibly survive. However, he was per- 
suaded to try, and Whittemore lived eighteen 
more years, dying in 1793, at the age of ninety- 
eight. When he was recovering, his wife 
could not forbear asking him if he did not 
regret he had not remained with the rest of 
the family from the first. But the old hero, 
still suffering from his many wounds, replied: 
"No! I would run the same chance again."* 
Four hundred feet farther along, at the 
corner of the Medford road, now Medford 
Street, stood the Cooper Tavern, Benjamin 
Cooper, landlord. He and his wife, Rachel, 
were mixing flip at the bar. Two of their 
guests, and possibly those two were all at the 
time, were Jason Winship, about forty-five 
years old, and his brother-in-law, Jabez Wyman, 

* statement of F. H. Whittemore. Smith's Address, pages 43, 44. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 143 

In his fortieth year.* Evidently they were 
non-combatants, and as such expected to 
remain unmolested. But the soldiers were 
lashed to a fury by the reception they had met 
along the road, particularly that of the last 
half mile. So many houses along back had 
concealed minute-men, that about all were 
freely riddled with bullets, then ransacked, 
and then set on fire. Cooper Tavern was not 
considered by them as a privileged exception. 
More than a hundred bullets were fired into it 
through the doors and windows. Then the 
soldiers entered for their finishing strokes. 
Mr. and Mrs. Cooper escaped to the cellar, but 
Wyman and Winship, both unarmed, were 
stabbed in many places, their heads mauled 
until their skulls were broken, and brains 
scattered about on the floor and walls, f 

The death of these two unarmed men, formed 
the climax of Arlington's part of the battle, 
for Percy's troops passed through the rest of 
the town, and crossed Menotomy River into 
Cambridge without further bloody incident. 

The Americans who were killed in Arlington, 
were Jason Russell, Jason Winship and Jabez 
Wyman of Arlington; Reuben Kennison, of 
Beverly; Samuel Cook, Benjamin Daland, 
Ebenezer Goldthwait, Henry Jacobs, Perley 
Putnam, George Southwick, and Jotham Webb, 
of Danvers; Elias Haven of Dedham; William 
Flint, Thomas Hadley, Abednego Ramsdell, and 
Daniel Townsend, of Lynn; WiUiam Polly and 
Henry Putnam, of Medford; Lieut. John Bacon, 
Nathaniel Chamberlain, Amos Mills, Sergt. 



* Cutter's Arlington and Paige's Cambridge, 
t Deposition of Rachel Cooper. 



144 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Elisha Mills, and Jonathan Parker of Needhanir 
Benjamin Peirce of Salem; and Jacob Coolidge 
of Watertown. These numbered twenty-five, 
and constituted half of all the Americans killed 
during the day. 

The wounded in Arlington were Samuel 
Whittemore, of Arlington; Nathaniel Cleaves, 
Samuel Woodbury, and William Dodge, 3rd, of 
Beverly; Nathan Putnam, and Dennison Wal- 
lace of Danvers; Israel Everett of Dedham; 
Eleazer Kingsbury, and a son of Dr. Tolman, of 
Needham. They numbered nine out of the 
thirty-nine Americans wounded during the day. 

The British killed in Arlington were at least 
forty, more than half of all their loss during the 
day. 

The patriot dead of old Menotomy and her 
sister towns were gathered, and twelve of them 
placed on a sled and drawn by a yoke of oxen 
to the little village church-yard. There they 
were laid away in one large grave, side by side^ 
in the same bloody garments they wore when 
they fell. One monument marks the place. 
In the meeting-house close by, friends and 
relatives met on the following Sabbath, and, 
we are told that among them were Anna, 
infant grand-daughter of Jason Russell, born 
on the day of the battle, and the little son of 
Jason Winship, who was brought to the altar 
for baptism. It must have been a sacred and 
patriotic consecration for all.* Some of the 
other slain from distant towns, were borne by 
their comrades back to their own homes, f 

In Arhngton, then, as the casualties show, 

* Smith's .'\ddress, page 52. 
t King's .Address, page 14. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 145 

the battle reached its cHmax. The savage 
ferocity of the personal encounters show to 
what a maddening frenzy the King's troops had 
been wrought. As in Lexington, Percy at- 
tempted the wholesale destruction of the 
American homes by the torch, but so closely 
had he been followed by the ever-increasing 
minute-men, that his efforts were futile. His 
soldiers had the time to start the fires, but not 
the time to fan them into conflagrations, and 
thus old Menotomy escaped the fate of Lexing- 
ton. 

Percy continued his march through the 
town of Arlington, crossing Menotomy River 
into Cambridge between five and six o'clock. 
The minute-men hovered dangerously near 
his rear guard so that he paused often long 
enough to wheel his two six-pounders about 
and prevent them from coming too near. They 
were entirely without fatal effect, but inspired 
at all times a wholesome respect, and kept 
the Americans farther away. 



PERCY'S RETREAT THROUGH CAM- 
BRIDGE. 

Occasionally the contest narrowed down to 
personal encounters between two or more. It 
was near the Menotomy River, on the Cam- 
bridge side, that Lieut. Bowman, of Arlington, 
overtook a straggler from the British ranks, and 
engaged him in single combat. Both had guns, 
but neither one was loaded. The Briton 
rushed at Bowman with fixed bayonet, but the 
latter warded it off, and with his musket clubbed 



146 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

his antagonist to the ground. Then he took 
him prisoner.* 

Cambridge was the home of Capt. Samuel 
Thatcher's company of seventy-seven men, but 
it is probable that Smith had encountered them 
as far back as Lincoln, for the muster roll in the 
Massachusetts Archives states that most of 
them marched twenty-eight miles, which would 
mean up into Lincoln and return, and to 
Charlestown Neck and return. 

Percy's march through Cambridge, from 
Menotomy River to the Somerville line, meas- 
ured nearly a mile and a quarter. The pro- 
vincials expected that he would return to 
Boston by the route he came out, that is through 
Harvard Square over Charles River bridge into 
Brighton, thence through Roxbury, and along 
Boston Neck and into Boston. Anticipating 
as much, it was ordered that the bridge should 
be made impassable. But Percy deemed it 
wise to hurry on to Charlestown, trusting that 
Gen. Gage would have an ample force there to 
receive and protect him. It was several miles 
nearer, and with no possibility of dismantled 
bridges to reconstruct, for his troops to pass over. 
Nor should it be forgotten that Percy's original 
plan was to remain that night, at least, in 
Harvard Square, but he had not counted on 
such intense hostility, from so large an army 
of minute-men in open rebellion. He deemed 
it wiser, therefore, to move constantly forward 
towards the main army. 

This mile and a quarter in Cambridge proved 
to be one of continual battle, also. The 
Americans were ever on the alert, and growing 

* Dr. B. Cutter's Statement in Smith's Address, page 47. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 147 

more and more active as they realized more 
and more the real meaning of the invasion. 
The sight of many of the British soldiers loaded 
down with plunder; the curling smoke and 
flames from American dwellings; the dying and 
the dead, some of them horribly mutilated, 
scattered all along the highway, were at last 
inspiring an intense feeling of hatred, and a 
longing for a satisfying vengeance. Percy's 
army experienced practically the same sensa- 
tions. Trained as soldiers to the usages of 
open warfare, they deemed the frontier method 
of fighting as unfair and cowardly. They held 
in contempt the man who should remain con- 
cealed in safety and shoot down one who was 
compelled to remain in the open. Undoubtedly, 
too, the memory of a comrade, lying at the 
North Bridge with that ugly hatchet death- 
wound in the head, aroused the most savage 
instincts, that seemed to cry for brutal retalia- 
tion. Whittemore, and Wyman, and Winship 
seem to have been victims of vengeance rather 
than of war. 

The Americans did not profit much by the 
lessons which they had received, earlier in the 
day, for they again fell victims to the British 
flankers. Quite a number had gathered near 
the home of Jacob Watson, situated on the 
southerly side of the highway near the present 
Rindge Avenue. Their fragile security was a 
pile of empty casks, not far from the road, from 
behind which they awaited the oncoming of 
the British. But the flank-guard came up in 
their rear, unobserved, and completely sur- 
prised them, killing Major Isaac Gardner of 
Brookline, a favorite son of that town, and the 



148 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

first graduate of Harvard College to fall in the 
War, and two Cambridge men, John Hicks, 
nearly fifty years old, and Moses Richardson, 
fifty-three years old. And near the same place, 
another Cambridge man, William Marcy, as 
tradition says * of feeble intellect, and a non- 
combatant. He was sitting on the fence, 
evidently enjoying the military spectacle, and 
perhaps good-naturedly cheering on the march- 
ing red-coats. His friendly demonstrations 
were entirely mistaken for shouts of derision. 
In the midst of his simple pleasure, some Briton 
esteemed it his duty to kill him as an enemy of 
the King. 

The British loss at this place was but one 
killed. 

On they marched, wheeling to the left, into 
Beech Street, a thoroughfare about seven 
hundred feet long, and thence out of Cambridge 
and into Somerville. 

Soon after this, the wife of John Hicks, whose 
home is still standing (1912) at the corner of 
Dusnster and Winthrop Streets, fearing for his 
safety, sent her son, fourteen years of age, to look 
for him. He had been absent since morning, and 
undoubtedly the noise of battle, a mile and a 
quarter away, coming across the fields, bore a 
sad burden of prophecy. Her misgivings were 
well founded, for the son found his father by 
the roadside where he fell, and near him the 
others. 

The body of Isaac Gardner was taken to 
Brookline and there buried the next day. The 
remains of John Hicks, Moses Richardson and 



* Paige's History of Cambridge, page 414. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 149 

William Marcy, were immediately taken to 
the little churchyard near the Common, a mile 
from where they fell. They were buried in 
one grave, without coffins or shrouds even. A 
son of Moses Richardson, standing by, realizing 
that the earth was to fall directly on their faces, 
jumped down into the grave and arranged the 
cape of his father's coat, that it might shield 
him somewhat from the falling earth. 

We may wonder now, at that hasty burial, 
without much, if any, ceremony; but let us 
associate with it the trail of the invading army, 
and of what seemed possible for the morrow, 
if it should return, greatly reinforced, for 
vengeance. Boston was not far away, and 
Gen. Gage, even then, might be preparing to 
move on Cambridge, with a force sufficiently 
large for its subjection. 'The Americans did not 
fully realize their own power or their own 
courage, not even as well as Gen. Gage did, 
who wisely decreed to remain in Boston and 
Charlestown, and decide later whether to pur- 
sue an aggressive or a defensive campaign. 
The spontaneous rousing of the country was 
an impressive one to the British commander. 

It had evidently been Percy's plan to camp 
on Cambridge Common that night, and while 
awaiting expected reinforcements, or upon their 
arrival, lay the buildings of Harvard College, 
and others, in ruins. Such a course would have 
been in harmony with his warfare in Lexington 
and Arlington, and serve as a practical lesson 
to those in rebellion, of the disposition and 
readiness of their King to wreak a swift and 



150 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

terrible vengeance upon his enemies.* But 
Percy's plans were rudely disarranged, and he 
commenced to realize that he was really being 
driven back to Boston. 



PERCY'S RETREAT THROUGH SOMER- 
VILLE. 

It was about half past six o'clock when Percy 
left Cambridge and entered the present city of 
Somerville, crossing the line at the corner of 
Beech and Elm Streets. Just about at the 
Somerville line the battle was hotly renewed. 
Near the corner of Beech Street, and on the 
easterly side of Elm Street, stood, and still 
stands (1912), the house of Timothy Tufts. 
Here Percy halted his army while his two field- 
pieces were dragged up the hill back of the 
Tufts house and discharged towards his pur- 
suers, with the usual result of his cannonading 
— none killed. From out a grove a little way 
up the road, came a scattering fire of American 
sharpshooters and in consequence quite a 
number of Britons were killed. They fell in 
the road, just in front of the Tufts house, and 
a tablet there marks where they were buried. 

Along Elm Street to Oak Street, and then 
continuing in Somerville Avenue, was their 
route, when the march was resumed. At the 
foot of Laurel Street on Somerville Avenue was 
then a little pond. Into that many weary 



* See Thanksgiving Sermon in the Camp at Roxbury, Nov. 23, 
1775, by Rev. Isaac Mansfield, Jr., Chaplain to Gen. Thomas's 
Regiment. Mr. Mansfield fully believed such plans to have been 
made and states that his information came so direct that he could 
not hesitate to accept it but did not feel at liberty to publish the 
name of his informer. 



152 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Britons threw themselves — some for the re- 
freshing plunge, others to quench their thirst.* 

Their march was continued rapidly now, and 
in consequence the fatalities on the American 
side were slight, if any, on the road from the 
Tufts house through Bow Street, for that was a 
part of Battle Road then, to Union Square. 
From the latter place they continued through 
Washington Street, where the American sharp- 
shooters had a grand opportunity to renew 
their havoc. Washington Street skirts along 
the westerly foot of Prospect Hill, the summit 
of which commands easily a stretch of highway 
for more than half a mile. Many were killed 
and wounded, some of the latter of whom were 
taken into the house then standing at the 
corner of Washington and Prospect Streets. 
Here Percy paused long enough to train his 
two field pieces up the road, and again with his 
usual lack of fatal results. But he checked the 
Americans. 

A little way farther along on the northerly 
side of the road, stood the home of Samuel 
Shed. Percy's troops halted there, for the few 
moments necessary to turn his field pieces on his 
pursuers again. While there one of the Britons, 
ambitious for plunder, entered the Shed home, 
and finding there a bureau or highboy filled 
with household effects, commenced the work 
of selecting what he desired. It took him too 
long, for his companions passed on, and left 
him still too busy to notice their departure or 
the coming of the Americans. Bullets came 
through the window, one of which killed him, 



* Booth, in Somerville Journal. April, 1875. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 153 

and three riddled the old bureau, spattering his 
blood over it, and on the floor.* 

A few rods farther, the grassy slope of Pros- 
pect Hill descended in a southerly direction to 
Washington Street, then called the Cambridge 
Road. James Miller, about sixty-six years old, 
stood there awaiting the British. With him 
was a companion, and both fired with deadly 
•effect, again and again, as the British marched 
by in the road below. They were discovered 
finally, and Miller's companion urged him to 
retreat. 

"Come, Miller, we've got to go." 

"I'm too old to run," replied Miller, and he 
remained only to be pierced with a volley of 
thirteen bullets.f His home was but a short 
-distance down the road, and is still standing, 
next to the house on the easterly corner of 
Washington and Franklin Streets. 

Miller was the only American killed in 
Somerville, as the British were in too full 
retreat to act very much on the aggressive. 
Their loss was considerable, however, and along 
the entire Battle Road, for the minute-men 
were exceedingly active in the rear and on the 
northerly side of the road, particularly. 

The policy of property destruction was con- 
tinued by Percy through Somerville. The 
limited time at his command did not allow of 
very thorough work, but he accomplished some- 
thing. The estate of James Miller whom they 
killed on the slope of Prospect Hill, was dam- 

* The old highboy was in existence in 1910 and treasured by a 
Somerville man, Francis Tufts, to whom it descended. I have 
seen it, with its blood stains and three bullet holes. 

t E. C. Booth in an article on Somerville in Drake's History of 
Middlesex County, Vol. 2, page 312. 



154 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

aged to the extent of £^, 12 s. ($23.00). Eben- 
ezer Shed lost his house, barn, and another 
building, valued at £U0 ($700), and the 
damage to his crop, fences, etc., he estimated at 
;^279, 3 s, 2 d. ($1395.79). The widow of 
Abigal Shed suffered to some extent in the 
same way.* 

PERCY'S ARRIVAL IN CHARLES- 
TOWN. 

The sun set at seven o'clock on that nine- 
teenth day of April, in l775.t It never rose 
again on Middlesex County under kingly rule. 
Percy must have been in the vicinity of Union 
Square, Somerville, at that particular moment. 
The pauses for his artillery demonstration; the 
destruction of the few buildings; the killing of 
Miller; and the hurried march to the Charles- 
town line, did not occupy more than half an 
hour. It was just dark enough for the musket 
flashes to be seen across the marshes and across 
the waters of the Charles River to the Boston 
shore, where were grouped anxious watchers 
awaiting the news of battle. 

Percy's thirty-six rounds for each of his 
soldiers had been about all expended. He 
describes the fire all around his marching 
column as "incessant," coming from behind 
stone walls, and from houses that he at first 
supposed had been evacuated. J 

Charlestown Common, now Sullivan Square, 
was soon reached, and his column gladly 
wheeled to the right and marched up Bunker 

* J. F. Hunnewell, A Century of Town Life, page 153. 
t Low's Almanack, Boston, 1775. 
} See his report to Gen. Gage. 




GENI5RAI, Wir<I<IAM HEATH. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 155 

Hill. As they did so, a mile away, on top of 
Winter Hill, in Somerville, were just then 
arriving three hundred more Americans, who 
had marched from Salem under Col. Timothy 
Pickering. They were half an hour late to be 
particularly effective. No blame can be at- 
tached to them for that, for there were thou- 
sands of other minute-men, from distant towns 
who were also late, for April 19th, but who 
were in ample time to join the besieging army 
on April 20th. 

At Charlestown Common, on the corner of 
the road to the Penny Ferry which crossed the 
Mystic River to Everett,* stood the home of 
William Barber, sea captain. His family con- 
sisted of his wife, Anne Hay, and their thirteen 
children. One of them, Edward, fourteen years 
old, sat at the window looking out upon the 
brilliant pageant of marching soldiers in the 
road. Many of the soldiers must have seen 
him, for he was not in hiding. One did, at all 
events, and with that thirst for killing some 
one, even though but a boy, shot him and saw 
him fall back into the room dead. Thus 
Edward Barber became Charlestown's martyr 
of April 19th. 

While Charlestown did not officially contrib- 
ute to the organized minute-men who were 
pursuing Percy, yet many individuals must have 
been in the American ranks on that day, for in 
the afternoon Gen. Gage wrote to James 
Russell of Charlestown that he had been in- 
formed people of that town had gone out armed 
to oppose His Majesty's Troops, and that if a 
single man more went out armed, the most 
disagreeable consequences might be expected. 

* Everett was then a part of Maiden. 



156 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

The people of Charlestown indeed had reason 
to be in terror, surrounded as they were by the 
soldiers, frenzied with their disastrous retreat 
from Lexington. The Selectmen arranged with 
Percy an armistice, agreeing that the troops 
should not be attacked, and that assistance 
should be given in getting them across the ferry 
to Boston, provided they would not attack the 
citizens or destroy their homes. This agree- 
ment seems to have been kept in good faith by 
both parties.* British officers walked up and 
down the streets, directing the women to keep 
within doors. 

Percy's force remained on Bunker Hill until 
arrangements were completed for their trip 
across the Charles River to Boston. The 
wounded were sent over first, being conveyed 
by the boats of the Somerset man-of-war, which 
still lay there, as it did when Revere crossed 
the night before. 

Gen. Gage sent pickets from Boston, selected 
from the Tenth and Sixty-fourth Regiments to 
do guard duty in Charlestown. f 

Gen. William Heath, as commander of the 
American forces, assembled the officers of the 
minute-men at the foot of Prospect Hill, in 
Somerville, for a Council of War. Then he 
ordered the formation of a guard to be posted 
near, and sentinels along the road now known 
as Washington Street in Somerville, and Cam- 
bridge Street in Charlestown, to Charlestown 
Neck. The remainder of the force was ordered 
back to Cambridge, J which place was to be for 
a while the Headquarters of the American Army. 

• De Bernicre's Report. 

t De Bernicre, and Diary of a British Officer in Boston in 1775. 

X Heath's Memoirs. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19 1775. 157 

AMERICAN KILLED, WOUNDED AND 
MISSING. 

Acton. Killed: Capt. Isaac Davis, James Hay- 
ward, Abner Hosmer. Wounded: Luther 
Blanchard and Ezekiel Davis. 

Arlington. Killed: Jason Russell, Jason Win- 
ship, Jabez Wyman. Wounded: Samuel 
Whittemore. 

Bedford. Killed: Captain Jonathan Willson. 
Wounded: Job Lane. 

Beverly. Killed: Reuben Kennison. Wounded: 
Nathaniel Cleaves, William Dodge, 3rd, 
Samuel Woodbury. 

Billerica. Wounded: Timothy Blanchard, John 
Nichols. 

Brookline. Killed: Major Isaac Gardner. 

Cambridge. Killed : John Hicks, William Marcy, 
Moses Richardson. Missing: Samuel Frost, 
Seth Russell. 

Concord. Wounded: Capt. Nathan Barrett, 
Jonas Brown, Capt. Charles Miles, Capt.^ 
George Minot, Abel Prescott, Jr. 

Charlestown. Killed: Edward Barber. 

Chelmsford. Wounded: Oliver Barron, Aaron 
Chamberlain. 

Danvers. Killed: Samuel Cook, Benjamin 
Daland, Ebenezer Goldthwait, Henry Jacobs, 
Perley Putnam, George Southwick, Jotham 
Webb. Wounded: Nathan Putnam, Denni- 
son Wallis. Missing: Joseph Bell. 

Dedham. Killed: Elias Haven. Wounded: Is- 
rael Everett. 

Framingham. Wounded: Daniel Hemenway. 



158 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

Lexington. Killed: John Brown, Samuel Had- 
ley, Caleb Harrington, Jonathan Harrington, 
Jr., Jedediah Munroe, Robert Munroe, Isaac 
Muzzy, Jonas Parker, John Raymond, Na- 
thaniel Wyman. Wounded: Francis Brown, 
Joseph Comee, Prince Estabrook, Nathaniel 
Farmer, Ebenezer Munroe, Jr., Jedediah 
Munroe (killed later), Solomon Pierce, John 
Robbins, John Tidd, Thomas Winship. 

Lincoln. Wounded: Joshua Brooks. 

Lynn. Killed: William Flint, Thomas Hadley, 
Abednego Ramsdell, Daniel Townsend. 
Wounded: Joshua Felt, Timothy Monroe. 
Missing: Josiah Breed. 

Medford. Killed: William Polly, Henry Put- 
nam. 

Needham. Killed: Lieut. John Bacon, Nathaniel 
Chamberlain, Amos Mills, Sergt. Elisha Mills, 
Jonathan Parker. Wounded: Eleazer Kings- 
bury, Tolman (son of Dr. Tolman). 

Newton. Wounded: Noah Wiswell. 

Roxbury. Missing: Elijah Seaver. 

Salem. Killed: Benjamin Pierce. 

Somerville. Killed: James Miller. 

Sudbury. Killed: Josiah Haynes, Asahel Reed. 
Wounded: Joshua Haynes, Jr. 

Stow. Wounded : Daniel Conant. 

Watertown. Killed: Joseph Coolidge. 

Woburn. Killed : Asahel Porter, Daniel Thomp- 
son. Wounded: Jacob Bacon, John- 
son, George Reed. 

Totals. Killed: 49. Wounded: 41. Missing: 
5. Total loss: 95. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 159 

BRITISH KILLED, WOUNDED, PRISON- 
ERS AND MISSING.* 

"Return of the Commission, Non-Commis- 
sion Officers, Drummers, Rank and File, 
killed and wounded, prisoners and missing, 
on the 19th of April, 1775. 

"4th or King's Own Regiment, Lieutenant 
Knight, killed. Lieutenant Gould, wounded 
and prisoner. 3 Serjeants, 1 Drummer, 
wounded. 7 Rank and File, killed, 21 wounded, 
8 missing. 

"5th Regiment, Lieutenant Thomas Baker, 
Lieutenant William Cox, Lieutenant Thomas 
Hawkshaw, wounded. 5 Rank and File killed. 
15 wounded, 1 missing. 

"10th Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Francis 
Smith, Captain Lawrence Parsons, Lieutenant 
Wald. Kelly, Ensign Jeremiah Lester, wounded. 
1 Rank and File killed, 13 wounded, 1 missing. 

"18th Regiment. 1 Rank and File killed, 
4 wounded, 1 missing. 

"23rd Regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Bery 
Bernard, wounded. 4 Rank and File killed, 
26 wounded, 6 missing. 

"38th Regiment. Lieutenant William Suth- 
erland, wounded. 1 Sergeant wounded. 4 Rank 
and File killed, 11 wounded. 

• I am under obligations to the Military Secretary of the English 
War Office for a copy of the official returns of Gen Gage of his 
losses on April 19, 1775, accompanied by the following: 
"WAR OFFICE 

"The Military Secretary begs to inform Mr. Frank W. Coburn 
with reference to his letter of the 27th November last, addressed 
to the late Commander in Chief, that the only information avail- 
able on the subject of the casualties sustained by the British Troops 
during the action at Lexington on 19th April, 1775, is contained 
in the Lords' Gazette of 6-10 June, 1775, an extract of which is 
«nclosed. 

"MR. FRANK W. COBURN, "WAR OFFICE, 

"Lexington, Massachusetts." "25th Sept., 1901." 



160 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

"43rd Regiment. Lieutenant Hull, wounded 
and prisoner. 4 Rank and File killed, 5 wounded, 

2 missing. 

"47th Regiment. Lieutenant Donald Mc- 
Cloud, Ensign Henry Baldwin, wounded. 

1 Sergeant wounded. 5 Rank and File killed, 
21 wounded. 

"52nd Regiment. 1 Sergeant missing. 3 Rank 
and File killed, 2 wounded. 

"59th Regiment. 3 Rank and File killed, 

3 wounded. 

"Marines. Captain Souter, Second Lieuten- 
ant McDonald, wounded. Second Lieutenant 
Isaac Potter, missing. 1 Sergeant killed, 

2 wounded, 1 missing. 1 Drummer killed. 
25 Rank and File killed, 36 wounded, 5 missing. 

"Total. 1 Lieutenant killed. 2 Lieutenant 
Colonels wounded. 2 Captains wounded. 

9 Lieutenants wounded. 1 Lieutenant missing. 
2 Ensigns wounded. 1 Sergeant killed, 7 

wounded, 2 missing. 1 Drummer killed. 

1 wounded. 62 Rank and File killed, 157 
wounded, 24 missing. 

"N. B. Lieutenant Isaac Potter reported to 
be wounded and taken prisoner. 
"Signed 

"THO. GAGE." 

Lieut. Hull, of the 43rd Regiment, wounded 
traveling in a chaise, fell behind the troops, 
again wounded, and carried into the house of 
Samuel Butterfield, in Arlington, where he 
died, two weeks later.* 

The forces participating were about eighteen 



* Smith's West Cambridge Address 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 161 

hundred British, well organized and well com- 
manded, opposed by about thirty-seven hundred 
and sixty Americans, without effective organiza- 
tion and without a real commanding officer. 



DISTANCES MARCHED BY THE 
BRITISH SOLDIERS. 

I have measured the routes of the various 
detachments and am enabled to give them as 
follows, in each case of Smith's force from the 
shore of Charles River in Cambridge, out to 
Concord and back to the shore of Charles River 
in Charlestown. The route of Percy's force 
was from School Street, Boston, out through 
Roxbury, etc., to the High School in Lexington, 
and return to the shore of Charles River, in 
Charlestown. My cyclometer is divided into 
eighty-eight fractions of a mile, each one of 
sixty feet. 

Three companies under Capt. Lawrence 
Parsons to the home of Col. Barrett, beyond 
North Bridge, Concord, 39|J miles. 

Three companies under Capt. Walter Sloane 
Lawrie to the North Bridge, Concord, 36^^ miles. 

Force of about one hundred men under Capt. 
Mundy Pole, to the South Bridge, Concord, 
36|| mile. 

Main division under Lieut. -Col. Smith, to 
Concord village, 34|f miles. 

Earl Percy's reinforcement, to the High 
School in Lexington, 25^^* miles. 

That of his baggage train captured and 
destroyed in Arlington, lllp miles. 



162 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

ENGLISH FRIENDS AFTER THE 
BATTLE. 

As in the beginning of this little history we 
gratefully chronicled the warm and sym- 
pathetic friendship for America that permeated 
the British nation, and particularly the councils 
of Parliament, so as we close, we may glance 
across the ocean again to see if that same 
friendship can survive the shock of rebellion 
against the King. In quarrels of a family 
nature one does not feel unpatriotic if he 
happens to espouse the cause of the minority. 
So it was with John Home Tooke.* His 
intense friendship for this part of the British 
Kingdom was evident at the start and reached 
a decided climax after the battle. He was a 
member of the Constitutional Society, and 
during an adjournment or recess of a meeting 
held June 7th proposed that a subscription 
should be immediately entered into "for raising 
the sum of one hundred pounds, to be applied 
to the relief of the widows, orphans, and aged 
parents, of our beloved American fellow- 
subjects, who, faithful to the character of 
Englishmen, preferring death to slavery, were, 
for that reason only, inhumanly murdered by 
the King's troops at or near Lexington and 
Concord." The money was raised and placed 
at the disposal of Benjamin Franklin, to dis- 
tribute in accordance with its purpose. The 
resolution was forwarded to several newspapers, 
and its publication naturally aroused consider- 
able surprise and painful comment. 

Mr. Home was arrested and tried for "a 



* At that time his name was simply John Home. 



THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 163 

false, wicked, malicious, scandalous and seditious 
libel of, and concerning, his said Majesty's 
government, and the employment of his troops," 
etc.* He was found guilty and sentenced to a 
fine of ;^200; to be imprisoned for twelve 
months; and that he find securities in ;^800 for 
his good behavior, for three years, f 

I have not read of any other Briton punished 
to that extent at that time, for friendship for 
his fellow subjects on this side of the ocean. 
There were many as sincere and devoted to the 
cause of the colonists as Home, and perhaps 
as openly, too, but he happened to be the one 
selected to bear the heavy burden of his King's 
displeasure. 

On a much larger and more impressive scale 
was the petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, 
and Commons, of the City of London, in 
Common Council assembled, to the Lords 
Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament as- 
sembled. It was presented in October, and 
recited how that body had "taken into the most 
serious consideration the present distressed 
situation of our fellow subjects in America," 
and concluded with the prayer that the House 
would be "pleased to adopt such measures for 
the healing of the present unhappy disputes 
between the mother country and the colonies, 
as may be speedy, permanent and honourable." 

But the wise counsels of the great city did 
not prevail in the House of Parliament, for that 



* "The Battle of Lexington as looked at in London before Chief 
Justice Mansfield and a jury in the Trial of John Home, Esq. By 
John Winslow." 

t See Memoirs of John Home Tooke, by Alexander Stephens, 
London, 1813. Vol. I, page 431, etc. 



164 THE BATTLE OF APRIL 19, 1775. 

body simply ordered their petition to "lie upon 
the table."* 

So was fought the opening battle of the 
American Revolution, the beginning of that 
long struggle which rent in twain the great 
English nation, and gave birth to these United 
States. 



* Parliamentary History of England, XVIII, column 698. 



END. 



INDEX. 



Acton, alarm in, 40 
Killed and wounded, 157 
Men of. 81 
Abbott, Ivieut. Moses, 81 
Adams children. 138 
Hannah, removed from her 

home, 125 
Home, 141 
Joel, 138 

Deacon Joseph, 137, home set 
on fire and looted, 137 ; 138 
Mrs. Joseph. 137 
Samuel, 17; 18; 21; 25; 29; 30, 31; 
34; 36 
Adan, John R.. note. 23 
Alarm in other places, 32 
Allen, the one-handed peddler, 

28 
Americans killed and wounded, 
157 
Number of. engaged, 161 
Andover, alarm in, 34 
Arlington, battle in, 130 
Killed and wounded of, 157 
Men of, 134 

Smith's advance through, 51 

Percy's retreat through, 130 

Aspinwall, Capt. Thomas, 133 

Bacheller, Capt. John, 96 
Bacon, Jacob, 158 

Lieut., John. 143: 158 
Baggage wagons of Percy cap- 
tured, 119 

Length of their route, 161 
Baker, Lieut. Thomas, of the 5th 

Regt.,112; 128; 159 
Baldwin. Ensign Henry, of the 
47th Regt.. 112; 128; 160 

Col. Loammi, 33; 112 
Ballard. John, 17 
Bancroft, Capt. Nathaniel, 134 
Barber, Mrs. Anne Hay, 155 

William, homeof, 155 

Edward, 125; 155; 157 
Barker. Francis, 42 
Barnard, Capt. Samuel, 134 
Barrett. Corporal Amos. 39 

Col. James. 42; 76; 80; 81; 82; 83; 
86; 87; 88: 161 

Mrs. James. 87; 88 

James, Jr.. 87 

Capt. Nathan. 73; 80; 157 

Samuel, 78 

Stephen, 87 

Deacon Thomas, 78 



Barron. Capt. Oliver. 43; 96; 157 
Bates. Capt. Oliver, 97 
Bathericke, Mother, 119 
Battle, Capt. Eben, 134 
Beaton, John, 93 
Bedford, alarm in, 37 
Killed and wounded, 157 
Men of, 37 
Belfry, the Old, in Lexington, 61 
Belknap, Jason, 119 
Joe. 119 

Capt. Samuel, 97 
Bell. Joseph, 157 
Bentley, Joshua, 22 
Berkshire County Convention, 14 
Bernard. Lieut.-Col. Bery, 159 
Beverly, killed and wounded. 
157 
Men of, 134 
Bigelow, Capt. Timothy, 46 
Billerica, alarm in. 39 
Men of, 96 
Wounded, 157 
Black Horse Tavern 'see also 
Wetherby's Tavern >. 18; 36; 
51; 52 
Blanchard, Luther, 42; 83; 84; 99; 
157 
Timothy, 157 
Blaney, Capt. Benjamin. 134 
Bliss. Mr., 9 

Mr. (tory),16 
Bloody Angle in Lincoln, battle 

at, 101:105 
Bond. Joshua, house and shop ot . 

burned. 126 
Boston Massacre. 2 
Boston Port Bill. 2 
Boston, start of Percy from. 114 

Start of Smith from, 19 
Bowman. Lieut Solomon, 53; 54; 
145 
Capt. Thaddeus. note 35; 37; 58: 

Boynton. Thomas, Journal ot, 

note 34 
Breed, Joshua, 158 
British Forces, 13 

Killed, wounded, prisoners 

and missing, 159 
Number of engaged, 160 
Prisoners, first ones captured. 

71 
Start for Lexington and Con- 
cord, 19 



166 



INDEX. 



Brookline, killed, 157 

Men of , 133 
Brooks, Major John, 96 

Joshua, 84; 99; 158 

Tavern, 98; 102 
Brown, Deacon Benjamin. 71 

Capt. David, 39; 40; 74; 80; 83 

Francis, 158 

John, 60; 70; 158 

Jonas. 99, 157 

Jonathan, 40 

Reuben, 93 

Solomon, 18: 27; 28: 34; 35: 36; 
67; 68 

Widow, her Tavern, 42; 88 
Bryant, Albert W., note, 35 
Buckman, John, 67 

Tavern, 30; 31; 36; 37; 60; 61; 62; 
67; 68; 71; 111 
Budge, James, 119 
Bullard's Bridge. 47; 48 
Bullet found in I^exington, 106 
Bull's Tavern, 72; 106 
Burgoyne. Gen. John, 4 
Butterfield. Jonathan. 138 

Samuel, home of, 160 
Buttrick, Major John, 81; 82; 84; 
85:91 

John (fifer), 83 

Cambridge, battle of, 145 

Burial of the patriot dead of, 
149 

Killed and missing, 157 

Men of, 104. 

Percy's retreat through, 145 

Smith lands at, 20 ; advances 

through, 47; 50 
Camden, Lord, 4 
Cannon, carriages of, burned, 
92; 94 

Percy's opening bombardment 
in Lexington. 122; 123 

Trunnions knocked off, 92; 94 
Capen house, 49 
Chamberlain, Aaron, 157 

Nathaniel, 143; 153 
Charlestown, battle in, 154 

Killed, 157 

Percy's arrival in, 154 

Selectmen arrange an armis- 
tice with Percy, 156 
Chatham, Lord, 4 
Cheever, David, 51 
Chelmsford, alarm in, 43 

Men of, 96 

Wounded. 157 
"Cheevy Chase," 115 
Child, Capt. Lemuel, 44; 134 
Choate house, in Somerville, 49 
Christ Church (Old North) in 
Boston, 23 



Clarke, Miss Elizabeth, letter of,, 
note, 113 

Rev. Jonas. 25; 34; 36; 113 

Jonas, son of Rev. Jonas, 30 
Clark, Capt. Thomas, 40 
Cleaves, Nathaniel. 144; 157 
Coburn, Capt. Peter, 44 
Concord, alarm in, 39 

Battle of, 78 

Court House saved, 95 

Damages in, 95 

Men of, 81 

Smith's advance into, 73 

Smith's retreat from 95 

Wounded, 157 
Comee, Joseph, 62: 66; 67: 70; 158 
Committee of Safety, 9; 10; 11; 12;; 
18; 51: 128 

Supplies. 10; 11: 12; 18; 51 
Conant. Col., 21; 24 

Daniel. 158 
Congress. First, Continental. 3 

First, Provincial, 3, 5 
Its limited power, 6: 7 

Second, Provincial, 7; 11 
Cook, Capt. Phinehas, 130 

Rev. Mr. 120; 137 

Samuel, 143; 157 
Cooper, Benjamin. 142; 143 

Rachel. 142; 143 

Tavern. 25; 142; 143 
Coolidge, Jacob, 144 

Joseph, 158 
Council of War in Concord. 80; 81 

In Somerville, 156 
Court House in Concord saved. 

95 
Cox. Lieut., of the 5th Regt., 112; 
128; 159 

William, one of the Boston Tea 
Party, note, 2 
Crosby, Lieut. 96 
Cudworth, Capt. Nathan, 96 
Cumings. Dr.. 93 
Cutler, Mr., 136 

Rebecca. 136 
Cutter, Amrai, 119; 121; 139 

Daland, Benjamin, 143. 157 

Damages in Concord, 95 

Damages in Lexington, viz... 
Bond's. 126; Loring's, 124; 
Mason's, 128; Mead's, 124; 
Meeting House, 112; 123; 
Merriam's, 124; Mulliken's. 
126: Munroe's, 127; Sander- 
son's, 127. Total, 128 

Damages in Somerville, viz.^ 
Miller's, 153; Abigal Shed, 
154; Ebenezer Shed, 154 



INDEX. 



167 



Dan vers, alarm in, 34 
Killed, wounded and missing 

157 
Men of, 134 
Davis, Ezekiel, 84; 99; 157 
Capt. Isaac. 41; 42; 43: 80, 81; 82 
83: 84: 91; 99; 157 
Dawes, William, 18; 20; 21; 25; 26 

27; 44 
DeBernicre, Ensign, 16; 75; 76; 86 

89; 94; 109; 130 
Dedham, alarm in, 44 
Killed and wounded. 157 
Men of. 134 
Des Barres's Map of Boston and 

Vicinity, note, 48 
Devens. Richard, 12; 24; 26; 51; 52 
Dimond, William, 58; 61 
Distances marched by the Brit- 
ish soldiers, 16 
Dodge, Capt. Caleb, 134 
William, 3rd, 144; 157 
Douglass, Robert, 33; 61 
Downer, Dr., 136 
Dracut, alarm in, 43 

Men of, 44 
Draper, Capt. Daniel, 134 
Capt. William, 44; 134 

Ears, cutting off of, charged to 

Americans, 89 
Eaton, Capt. Thomas, 96 
Edgett, Capt. Simon, 45; 96 
Ellis, Capt. William, 134 
Emerson, Rev. William, 39; 89 
Ernes, Capt. Jesse, 96 
English friends after the battle, 

162 
English War Office, letter from 

the Military Secretary of, 

note, 159 
Epes, Capt. Samuel, 134 
Esta brook. Prince, 70; 158 
Everett, Israel, 144; 157 

Fairbanks, Capt. David, 134 
Earmer, Capt. Edward, 96 

Nathaniel, 70; 158 
Parrington, Capt. William. 134 
Eaulkner, Col. Francis, 41 

Francis, Jr., 41 
Felt, Joshua, 158 
Fiske, Benjamin, home of, 108 
Fiske Hill in Lexington, fight- 
ing near, 106 
Fitch, Nathan, Jr., Tavern of, 38 
Flight of Hancock and Adams, 

30 
Flour in Concord destroyed, 92; 
94 



Flint, Capt. John, 96 

Capt. Samuel, 134 

William, 143; 158 
Forces of the Americans and 

British compared, 160 
Foster, Rev. Edmund, 33; 96 
Fox, Capt. Jonathan, 97 
Framingham, alarm in, 45 

Men of, 96 

Wounded, 157 
Franklin, Benjamin, 162 
Friends, English, after the 

battle, 162 
Frost, Capt. Ephraim, 120 

House in Somerville, 49 

Samuel, 157 
Fuller. Capt. Aaron. 134 

Capt. Amariah. 130 

Gage. Gen. Thomas, 5; 6; 8; 13 

14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 34; 54; 75 

94; 114; 115; 146; 149; 155; 156 

160 
Gardner, Henry, note, 7 
Major Isaac, 133; 147; 157 
Col. Thomas, 51 
Gerry, Elbridge, 18; 36; 51; 52; 53 
Glea.son, Capt. Micajab, 96 
Goddard, Mrs. Mehitable Gay, 

27 
Goldthwaite, Ebenezer, 143; 157 
Goodridge. Capt.. 11 
Gordon, Rev. William, note, 16 
Gould, I,ieut. Edward Thornton, 

of the 4th or King's Own 

Regt., 85; 99; 121; 159 
Gould, Capt. George, 134 
Great Fields in Concord, 101 
Great Meadows in Concord, 96 
Greaton Family, note, 44 
Guild, Capt. Joseph, 134 
Gun carriages in Concord 

burned, 87 

Hadley, Samuel, 68; 158 

Thomas, 143; 158 
Hall, Capt. Isaac, 25; 134 

Mrs. Thomas, note, 138 
Hancock. John. 6; 8; 10; 17; 18; 
21; 25; 29; 30; 34; 36; 52 

Mrs., 30 
Handley, Charles, 88 
Hapgood, Capt. 97 
Hardy's Hill, fight at, 98 
Harrington, Caleb, 62; 66; 67; 68; 
70; 158 

David, 50; 66 

Jonathan, Jr., 66: 68; 70; 158 

Thaddeus, note, 37 



168 



INDEX. 



Hartwell houses in Lincoln, 102 

.Sergt. John. 102 

Sergt. Samuel, 102 

Mrs. Samuel, 102 
Harvard College, Percy's con- 
templated destruction of, 
116, 149 
Hastings, Samuel. 104 
Hatchet, British soldier killed 

with a, 89 
Haven, Elias, 143; 157 
Hawkshavir, Lieut. Thomas, of 

the 5th Regt., 112; 128: 159 
Haynes. Capt. Aaron, % 

Deacon Josiah, 112; 158 

Joshua, Jr., 158 
Hayward, James, 108, 112, 157 

Lieut., 93 
Hicks, John, 148; 157 

Mrs. John. 148 

Son of John, 148 
Hill, Mrs. James, note, 138 
Heath, Gen. William, 11; 14; 51; 

128; 132; 135; 156 
Hemenway, Daniel. 157 
Home, John, 162: 163 
Hosmer. Abner, 84; 91; 99; 157 

Adjutant Joseph, 80, 91 
Hubbard, Ebenezer. 77 
Hull, Lieut., of the 43rd Regt., 

85; 99; 160 
Hunnewell brothers, 49 
Hunt, Capt. Simon, 41; 81; 83 
Hutchinson, Capt. Israel. 134 

Thomas. 13 

Indians of Stockbridge, 11 
Ireland, Jonathan, 49 

Jacobs, Henry, 143; 157 
Jasper, Mr., gunsmith, 17 
Johnson, Mr., 158 
Jones, Elisha, house of, 85; 90 

Madame, 30 
Jones Tavern, 16 
Jones, Rev. Thomas, 30 

Kelly. Lieut. Waldo of the 10th 

Regt., 85; 99; 159 
Kennison. Reuben, 143; 157 
Kent, Samuel, 49 
Killed, virounded and missing, 

Americans, 157 
Killed, wounded and missing, 

British, 159 
Kingsbury. Capt. Caleb, 134 

Eleazer, 144; 158 
Knight, Lieut., 159 

Lamson, David. 119 
Lane, Job, 102; 105; 157 
Lanterns, signal, 23 



Larkin, Deacon, 24, note, 25 
Lawrie, Capt. Walter Sloane, of 

the 43rd Regt., 76, 85, 161 
Lechmere Point, Smith lands at, 

20: 47: 48: 74 
Lee, Col. Charles, 18: 51; 52; 53 
Lee's Hill, Concord, 77: 82 
Lester. Ensign Jeremiah, of the 

10th Regt., 98. 99; 159 
Lexington, alarm in, 34 

Battle of, 57 

Burial of the slain, 113 

Damages, 128 

Killed and wounded, 158 

Men of, 58 

Meeting house bombarded by 
Percy, 112 

Smith's advance through, 57 

Smith's retreat to Lexington 
Village, 105 
Liberty pole in Concord, 74 
Lincoln, Col. Benjamin, 51 
Lincoln, alarm in, 38 

Men of, 81 

Wounded, 158 

Smith's advance through, 72 

Smith's retreat through, 99 
Littleton, alarm in, 44 
Locke, Capt. Benjamin. 56, 134 
Locker, Capt. Isaac, 96 
London, City of, 3 

Petition lo Parliament, 163 
Long Room Club. 15 
Loritig, Jonathan. 18; 28: 36 

Deacon Joseph. 123; his loss, 124 
Lowe, Capt. Caleb, 134 
Lowell, Mr., 30; 31 
Lynn, alarm in. 32 

Killed, wounded and missing, 
158 

Men of. 134 

McDonald, Second Lieutenant. 

160 
McCloud, Lt. Donald, of the 47th 

Regt.. 112; 128: 160 
Maiden, men of, 134 
Mansfield, Capt. Rufus, 134 
Marcy, William, 125: 148: 149; 157 
Mark, the negro slave, 24 
Marrett, Rev. Mr., 30; 31 
Mason. John, 127; home of, 

looted, 198 
Mead home, looted, 124 
Mead, Israel, 119 
Mrs. Matthew, 35,36 
Rhodes, 35 
Medford. killed, 158 

Men of, 134 
Meeting house in Lexington, 
bombarded by Percy, 122 



INDEX. 



169 



Menotomy, men of, 134 
Meriam's Corner, fight at, 96 
Merriam. Benjamin, home of, 

looted, 124 
Messengers of alarm, 20 
Middle District Caucus, 15 
Middlesex County convention. 14 
Miles, Capt. Charles, 80; 83; 157 
Miller, James, 153; 158 
Miller's River, 48 
Mills, Amos, 143; 158 

SerKt. Elisha, 144; 158 
Minot, Capt. George. 39; 40; 73; 
80; 157 

Dr., 93 

Capt. Jonathan, 97 
Military Act. 2 
Mitchell, Major, 28; 29 
Mohawks, Chief of the, 11 
Monroe, Timothy, 158 
Moore, Capt. John, 81 

Mrs., 48 
Mothskin, Johoiakiu. 11 
Moulton, Martha. 95 
Mount Vernon, in IvCxington, 

122; 123; 128 
Mulliken, John, 126 

Lydia. house of, burned, 126; 
her loss, 126 

Miss, 26 
Munroe Avenue, suggested as a 
substitute name for Percy 
Road, note, 125 

Anna, 66 

Ebenezer, Jr.. 65; 70; 71; 158 

Jedediah, 70; 130; 158 

John , 65 

Marrett, house of, 67 

Nathan, 37; 38 

Ensign Robert. 66; 68; 158 

Sergt. William, 18; 25; 35; 36; 
note, 37; 62; 72; 127 
Munroe Tavern. 122, 126 
Musket balls thrown into the 

river, 94 
Muzzy, Isaac, 68; 158 

Needham, killed and wounded, 
158 

Men of, 134 
Nelson, Josiah, 38; 103 
Newhall, Capt. Ezra, 134 
Newman, Robert, 23 
Newton, alarm in. 45 

Men of , 130 

Wounded, 158 
Nichols, John, 157 
Nixon, Capt. John, 45; 96; 112 
North Bridge, Concord, 75 

Battle at, 78; 80 

Occupied by the British. 76 



North Church, Old North, or 
Christ Church, in Boston, 23 
North End Caucus, 15 
North, Lord. 4 

Old Belfry, in Lexington. 61 
Old Manse, in Concord, 89 
Orne, Col. Azor. 18: 51; 52; 53 

Page, Capt. Jeremiah, 134 
Parker, Capt. David, 134 
Elizabeth S., 60 

Capt. John, 18; 31; 37; 38; 58; 60; 
61; 62; 63; 64; 66; 67; 71; 82; 101; 
104; 105; 110; 124; 127 
Jonas, 65; 70; 158 
Jonathan, 144; 158 
Capt. Joshua, 97 
Capt. Moses. 43; 96 
Rev. Theodore, 60 
Palmer, Col. Joseph, 51 
Parliament, 1; 163 
Parsons, Capt. Lawrence, of the 
10th Regt., 76; 86; 87; 89; 159; 
161 
Paterson, Col., 11 
Payson, Rev. Phillips, A.M., 119 
Peirce, Benjamin, 144 
Pelham's map of Boston and vi- 
cinity, note, 48 
Pepperell, alarm in, 44 
Percy, Earl, Acting Brigadier 
General, 94; 111; 114; 115; 116 
117; 119; 120: 121: 122; 123; 124 
125: 126; 128: 129; 130; 132; 133 
135; 137; 138; 140; 143; 145; 146 
147; 149; 150; 152; 153: 154; 155 
156; 161 
"Percy Road." note. 125: 126. 
Change to Munroe Avenue 
suggested, note. 125 
Phip's Farm. 19 
Pickering. Col. Timothy, 155 
Pierce, Benjamin, 158 

Solomon, 70; 158 
Pigeon, John, U: 45; 51 
Piper's Tavern, 48 
Pistols of Major John Pitcairn. 

note, 107 
Pitcairn, Major John, 13; 19: 54; 
58; 63; 64; 67; 69; 75; 104; 107; 
114; 115 
Plympton, Thomas, 45 
Pole, Capt. Mundy, of the 10th 

Regt., 76; 91: 92: 94; 161 
Pole, William, 143; 158 
Pomeroy. Col. Seth, 11 
Porter. Asahel, 56; 57; 68; 70; 158 
Potter, Second Lieut. Isaac. 113; 
128; 160 



170 



INDEX. 



Powder, thrown into the river, 94 
Preble. Jedidiah. 10: 11 
Prentiss, George. 139 
Prescott. Abel. Jr., 99; 157 

Gen.. 44 

Dr. Samuel. 25; 26; 27; 39 
Price Plain, 87 
Prince, Capt. Asa, 134 
Prisoners, first American that 

were captured, 50 
Pulling. Capt. John Jr., 22: 23 
Punkatasset Hill, 40; 43; 75; 80 
Putnam, Capt. Edm., 134 

Henry, 143, 158 

Capt. John, 134 

Mrs. John P., presents Pit- 
cairn's pistols to the town 
of Lexington, note 107 

Nathan. 144; 157 

Perley, 143: 157 

Quincy, Dorothy, 30 

Ramsdell, Abednego, 143; 158 
Rand, the widow, 49 
Raymond. John, 125; 127; 130; 132 

158 
Reading, alarm in, 33 

Men of, 96 
Reed, Asahel, 158 

George. 158 

James. 71; 72 

Joshua, 71 

Mr., 30 

Thaddeus, 110 
Revere. Paul, 15; 19; 20: 21; 22; 24: 
25: 26: 27; 28: 29; 30; 31; 32: 37: 
39; 52; 60 
Richardson, Josiah, 56; 57; 68 

Moses, 148; 149: 157 

Thomas, 22 
Robbins home, 136 

John, 70: 1.58 
Robins, Capt. Joseph, 81 

Thomas, 50 
Robinson, Lieut. -Col. John, 82 
Roxbury, alarm in, 44 

Men of, 1.34 

Missing, 158 
Russell. Anna, 144. 
Russell House, Lexington, 36: 
124 

James, 155 

Jason, 139; home looted, 140; 
143: 157 

Seth. 157 

Capt. Stephen, 44 

Salem, killed. 158 
Men of, 155 



Sanderson, Elijah, 18: 28: 36 
Samuel, 127; killing of his 
cow, 127 
Sandwich, Earl of, 5 
Scalping, charged to the Ameri- 
cans, 89 
Seaver, Elijah, 158 
Sentinels, first posting of Ameri- 
can, 156 
Shaw. Capt. Peter, 134 
Shed, Abigal, widow of, 154 
Ebenezer, 154 
Samuel, house of, 152 
Shattuck, Col. Daniel, 33 
Sibley, Rev. J. L., 48 
Silver Tankard of the Commun- 
ion Service belonging to the 
Church in Menotomy stolen, 
138 
Simonds, Joshua, 62; 66; 71 
Smith, Capt. Aaron, 134 

Lieut.-Col. Francis. 19; 47; 48; 
50; 51: 57; 69; 72; 73; 75; 76; 85; 
91; 92; 93: 94; 95: 99; 105; 
wounded. 106: 109; 110; 113; 
115: 117; 121: 123; 126; 128; 129; 
146; 159: 161 
Isaac, 117 

Capt. Joseph. 97: 103 
Capt. Robert, 154 
Solomon, 84 
Capt. William. 81; 83 
Somerset, man-of-war, 17; 22: 23 
Somerville. battle of, 150 
Council of war in, 156 
Killed. 158 

Percy's retreat through, 150 
Smith's advance through, 48 
Sons of Liberty, 15: 20 
Souter, Capt., of the Marines^. 

113: 128; 160 
South Bridge, Concord, 76; 91; 92 
South End Caucus, 15 
Southwick, George, 143; 157 
Spring Valley, 119; 120 
Spy Pond, 119: 120 
Stamp Act, 1; repealed, 2 
Stedman, Capt.. 11; 33 
Stickney, Capt. Jonathan, 96 
Stone, Capt. Moses, 97 
Stow, men of, 97 
Wounded, 158 
Sudbury, alarm in, 45 
Killed and wounded, 158 
Men of, 96 
Sutherland. Lieut., of the 38th 

Regt.. 85; 99: 159 
Sword of slain British officer 
found. 106 

Tanner's brook, 99 
Tea, tax on, 2 



INDEX. 



171 



Tewksbury. alarm in, 40 
Thatcher, Capt. Samuel, 105; 146 
Thompson, Daniel, 101, 105: 158 
Thorndike. Capt. Larkin, 134 
Thorningr, William, 103 
Tidd, Benjamin, 37; 38 

John, 158 

Lieut. William. 66; 67; 70 
Tolman, son of Dr. Tolman, 1 44. 

158 
Tooke, John Home, 162 
Townsend, Daniel, 143; 158 
Treaty of Peace, Feb. 10, 1763, 1 
Trenchers destroyed, 92 
Trull, Capt. John, 40, 43 
Tufts, Dr., 142 

John, 136 

Mr., 55 

Mrs. Rebecca, 136 

Samuel, 49 
Tufts Tavern. 55; 136; looted and 

set on fire, 137 
Tufts, Timothy. 50; 150 

Mrs. Timothy, 50 

Varnum, Gen., 40; 43 
Viles Tavern, 72; 106 

Walker, Capt. Joshua, 97 
Wallace, Dennison, 144; 157 
Walton, Capt. John, % 
Ward, Artemas, 10; 11 
Warren, Dr. Joseph, 17: 20; 21; 22; 

118; 128; 135; 136 
Washington, George, 3 
Waters, Col., 17 
Water town, killed, 158 

Men of, 134 
Watson, Abraham, 51 

Jacob, home of, 147 
Webb, Jotham, 143; 157 
Wellington, Benjamin, 58 



Welsh. E., 72 

Mr., 72 

Dr. Thomas, 118 
Westford, men of, 97 
Wetherby's Tavern, IS; 51 (See 

also Black Horse Tavern.) 
Wheeler, Timothy, 77 
Whitcomb, Capt. William. 97 
White, Capt. Begjamin, 51 

Capt. Thomas, 133 
" White Cockade," 42. 83 
Whiting, Capt. Moses, 44; 134 
Whittemore. Samuel. 51; 141; 142; 
144; 147; 157 

Mrs. Samuel, 141; 142 
Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, 

3 
Willard, Thomas R.. 72 
Willis Creek. 47; 48 
Willson, Capt. Jonathan, 38; 81; 

101; 105; 157 
Winship, Jason: 142; 143; 147; 157 

Son of Jason, 144 

Simon, 57 

Thomas. 70; 158 
Wiswell, Capt. Jeremiah, 130 

Noah, 158 
Woburn, alarm in, 33 

Killed and wounded, 158 

Men of, 97 
Wood, Amos, 77; 91 

Ephraim, 77; 91 

Sylvanus, 33, 61; 62; 71 
Woodbury, Samuel. 144; 157 
Wooden spoons destroyed, 92 
Worcester, alarm in, 45 
Worcester County convention, 14 
Wyman, Amos, 31 

Jabez, 142; 143; 147; 157 

Nathaniel, 101; 105; 158 
Wright's Tavern, 75; 93 
" Yankee Doodle," 115 



